Pyrrha Meets a Lich
by Boopittydoop
Summary: It should have been a great camping trip for 12-year-old Pyrrha. Her school work was going great. Her aura has been unlocked recently. She was getting one step closer to becoming a huntress. However, after a small earthquake, Grimm appeared, and she fell into this hole to wake up next to a hooded man.
1. Chapter 1

It was all wrong. Pyrrha's vacation trip should have been perfect. It was supposed to be a fun camping trip with her family before her school year started, and there should have been no Grimms on the mountain.

However, it quickly went wrong when the mountain shook, and numerous Grimm started pouring out of nowhere, and to make things worse, she got separated from her family.

So here she was running from multiple alpha beowolves, ursas, and all other Grimm monsters intent on shredding her to pieces. Thankfully, she was always quite agile and athletic so she could stay out of reach of the pursuing Grimm, but they were quickly approaching. Approaching fast.

Pyrrha's vision was getting blurry, and her lung began screaming with pain as she tried to keep up her speed, but as if fate decided to punish her more, another hole opened up beneath her, and she fell. She felt a sharp pain in the back of her head before she lost consciousness.

"Waaahh!" Pyrrha woke up with a panicked scream and began fighting whatever was wrapped around her. She didn't want to die. Not now! She just had her aura unlocked and the next year she would start training with weapons of her own design. She would be one more step closer to her dream of being a huntress. She couldn't die now!

"Woah! Hey! Hey! Calm down. It's just a blanket!" A human voice called out to her. Pyrrha was too busy wrestling with the Grimm to properly hear what he was saying; however, relief flooded her heart to know that there was someone nearby.

"Help me! Please help me get this Grimm off me!" Pyrrha desperately shouted.

"Just stop struggling! It's a blanket! A blanket!" She began feeling the Grimm's hold loosening on her. With a final kick, she was free.

She quickly looked around in panic. It seemed she was in a house on some sort of makeshift bed of moss. There was a stone table, a dim light on the ceiling, and a hooded figure laying on the ground with a blanket on his chest.

Pyrrha recalled kicking something solid when she kicked off the… Connecting all the dots, she was about to jump off the bed and help the man get up; however, the man immediately put up a hand and got up by himself. The entire time he grabbed his hood to keep it from falling off so she couldn't get a look at the man's face.

"Ummm. Where am I?" Pyrrha asked warily. The man looked like one of the weird cultists that she saw on TV. He was wearing a robe around him that was covering his entire body and some sort of crude gloves.

"Well, this is my…errr… home? Shelter?" The robed man answered with a small shrug.

"What happened? The last thing I remember is falling down a hole, chased by Grimm… Wait, my parents! Are they okay? I need to go to them!" Pyrrha began panicking and dived for the door before a sharp pain in her leg caused her to fall down again.

"Hey! Be careful. You aren't in any position to go anywhere. You sprained your ankle." After rebuking Pyrrha, he helped her up and helped her sit down on the bed. Pyrrha was surprised at how bony the man's fingers were.

"You're in no position to be walking anywhere. Besides even if you go out of that door you won't be able to find your parent most likely." Pyrrha looked at the man prompting him to continue.

"We are in some sort of a monster-filled cave system. You fell from this hole in the ceiling that opened up during an earthquake. Most likely your parents are above ground which is most likely a lot safer place than where we are now." The man slumped his shoulder as he explained the situation to the girl.

"There was a cave system under the mountain?" Pyrrha asked the man. The man straightened his back; however, the hood continued to obscure his face.

"A mountain? Do you know the name of the mountain we are under?" Pyrrha responded that her family was on a camping trip on the North Mistral Mountains.

"Huh. Err… What country is the mountain located? Is it in the United States, England, Canada, or some other English speaking country?" This time it was Pyrrha's turn to be surprised.

"I have never heard of those countries. We are in Mistral. The only other kingdoms I know of are Vale, Atlas, and Vacuo." The man leaned back in surprise.

"Kingdoms? Am I in like a fantasy middle ages or something? I know I am not on Earth…" Pyrrha began thinking that the man was crazy or something when he began spouting off even more terminology that didn't make any sense. What did he mean?

"Well, dirt is everywhere. So, you are on dirt… Also, as far as I know, the four kingdoms have been around for some time." Pyrrha was beginning to grow uncomfortable at how she couldn't see the man's face. The hood was starting to become unnerving.

"Do you know history?" Pyrrha nodded in answer.

"Yeah. We learn about it in school; however, anything before the four kingdoms is shrouded in mystery." The man only waved for her to go on. Pyrrha began reciting all the history lessons of the Kingdoms to the Great war to the Faunus' struggle for equal rights. Pyrrha was surprised even more when the man had no idea what a Faunus was so she had to go off on a tangent about who they were, and it somehow led to Pyrrha discussing how the government was structured. Pyrrha was about to go into detail about hunters/ huntresses and the academy when Pyrrha's stomach began to grumble.

"Oh. This is embarrassing. I forgot that living people ate. Hold on. I'll try to find something for you." With those words, he quickly exited the room and quietly closed the door behind him.

Pyrrha took the time to test out her foot. Her aura was unlocked last year when she was 11 so it should speed up her healing process. Once she was sure that her foot was able to hold up her weight, she got off the bed and peeked out the door. The man wasn't lying when he said that there was a cave system. The path extended to the right and left with the path being lit up by some sort of glowing moss on the ceiling. There were stalagmites and stalactites throughout the cavern. Pyrrha stepped out into the cave and realized how out of place the door was on the cave walls. It looked as if it was made…

"What are you doing?!" Pyrrha nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice hissed at her from behind her. The hooded man was slightly wet behind her holding some sort of fish.

"Quickly get inside! It's not safe out here!" The man quickly began pushing Pyrrha back into the room. Once back inside, the man placed the fish onto the table, and he began to gut the fish with an improvised knife he pulled out of from this drawer that was in the side of the table. Pyrrha found out why the table was shaped so weirdly. However, it soon became clear that the men had no idea what he was doing with the fish.

"Here. May I?" The man gladly relinquished the knife to Pyrrha as she began cutting into the fish with far more success than the man. Pyrrha felt the man become stranger by the second.

The man seemed to have noticed Pyrrha staring at him. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well… Your hood is really unnerving, and I don't know your name." The man slapped his hand on his face and began muttering angrily.

"So sorry. It's just been a long time since I have had contact with anyone else. I've been in this cave for a _long_ time. The reason I have this hood on is because I have this really awful face wound that would scare you really badly if you saw it. In fact, me taking off this hood would cause you to start screaming and run out of the door in fear. As for my name, call me Lich." Pyrrha looked at him incredulously.

"Your face can't be _that_ bad, and what is with your name?"

"My face is _that_ bad. Have you ever seen what a human skull looked like? It looks like that. As for my name being Lich, I forgot my real name."

"Well, I'm done cutting the fish. Do you have a fire? Or something?"

"Yeah. Hand it over."

The man placed the fish onto a metal plate and put his gloved hand under it. Pyrrha was about to ask what the man was going to do when a fire appeared on his hand and began to cook the fish.

"That's cool. Is that your semblance?" Pyrrha asked the man.

"Semblance? Is that like another word for magic?"

"What no. That's silly. Magic doesn't exist. Semblance is like an individual's ability that's unique to everyone. It's fueled by your aura which is the manifestation of your soul. Aura is why I was able to heal my sprain so fast!" With those words, Pyrrha showed off her foot to the man.

"You know. That sounds like magic to me. Never heard of semblance before. Aura, yes, but I always thought it was some hallucinations that hippies had."

"What! How could you be able to do that without knowing what semblance and aura are! What type of backwater place did you come from?"

"A place that had no monsters. No magic. No semblance. Where aura wasn't real!"

"Aura is real! All living things with a soul have it!"

With those words, the man seemed to visibly shrink as he slumped into his chair. Pyrrha felt something was wrong with the man.

"Are you okay?"

"No. Not really. I need to get out of this cave system. I need to go outside and see just how much changed. I don't think I am on Earth anymore. I should figure that out when I realized that I could shoot out fireballs, and do all sorts of magic tricks… Hey girl…"

"My name is Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

"Pyrrha. What is the name of the planet we are on?"

"We're on Remnant."

"Yeah… Probably in a different dimension or world or something. Here. The fish should be done by now. Eat up."

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"You're a nice girl for saying that despite that awfully loud rumbling before."

"I want to be considerate of others. It's one of the reasons I want to be a huntress. Oh, umm. It's sort of late, but thank you for saving me."

"We are going to have a nice long conversation, but you don't need to worry about me. I don't…err… I already ate. I'm going to go ahead and kill some monsters. Stay here. It's really dangerous outside with these weird shadowy monsters."

"You mean Grimm, right?"

"So that's what they are called."

"Where is your weapon?"

The man simply tapped his foot, and a bone spike rose out of the ground suddenly.

"I don't need weapons when I am a spellcaster."

 _So, okay. Today was a hectic day. Sucks that I am not dreaming this shit. At least, I can wake… stupid charcoal. Stupid floor. I never realized the convenience of paper and pencil until now. So yeah. Well then again, no one will probably see my desperate attempt at trying to keep sane. Writing out my thoughts have been said to be therapeutic so I am testing it out right now. Maybe I can organize my thoughts on what the hell is happening by writing this out._

 _I wake up on the cold hard floor in a cave instead of my bed in my apartment. Forget waking up in time for my college class with this shit I am in. At first, I thought it was a prank, so I started yelling out that it was all fun and all that, until my yelling attracted a big shadowy red-eyed bone-covered wolf that leaped at me and started tearing into me. After tearing off a chunk of my arm, I managed to run away._

 _I thought that I would bleed to death, but even after losing a really scary amount of blood, I didn't lose consciousness, didn't feel woozy or dizzy, and more importantly, didn't die. Even stranger is that my arm doesn't hurt, and I can still move my arm like nothing happened to it._

 _Insane right?_

 _So I got up and kept walking until I went into a room that was just littered with bones. I am not joking. There were bones everywhere. To make things worse, it was all human bones. I couldn't even see the floor because there were so many damn bones. So, I was like fuck this shit I am out until a giant fuckin shadow bear came out from behind me and attacked. I had no choice but to go into the room, and I quickly picked out a femur to use as my weapon._

 _I clubbed that stupid bear to death. Nah, I'm joking. I got mauled. The bear ripped out my abdominal wall, and my guts spilled everywhere. Now here I am grabbing onto my guts, crawling away from the bear, and I had this most absurd thought about how the bones around me would form into a skeleton, and it would fight the bear._

 _Then, the very absurd thing I thought happened. My thoughts came into reality. I felt this pull in my heart as a freaking skeleton formed between me and the bear, and the two fought. Freaking out, I ran deeper into the room and jumped behind this mound of bones. I still could hear the fighting. Once I shoved all my guts back in and tied my shirt around my wrecked abdomen, I looked back and saw the skeleton getting beat up. I began thinking if the other bones would turn into a skeleton and attack the bear, and sure enough more pulls from my heart and more skeletons rose up and began swarming the bear. I sort of got tired of how the skeletons were trying to beat the stupid bear with their fists instead of picking up the bones filling the room and using them as weapons and as soon as I thought that, they picked up the bones and began clubbing or stabbing the bear. When the bear finally collapsed, it just faded away like it never existed._

 _So yeah… Here I am. At the entrance to the very room. Surrounded by five skeletons that can somehow read my mind… I just thought of how the skeleton with the cracked skull would break dance. It did. Hey, maybe I'll try summoning more!_

 _I summoned 5 more. Another was going to form, but it broke apart halfway after this massive squeeze from my heart. That was really scary for a second. I thought that was a heart attack for a second._

 _Maybe I ran out of mana or something? Wow. Look at me. Already starting to think in game terms. This is how absurd this situation is. So, it seems I have necromancy powers… That is very concerning. Am I undead?_

 _Oh god. I have no pulse! I have no pulse in my throat! But, it doesn't make sense because when I put my hand on my chest, I feel my heart beating…_

 _I don't want to delve on to this. Next._

 _Where am I? I don't think I am on Earth anymore. For one, the physics behind skeletons moving without muscles. Just how? So obviously I am probably in like this world of magic. Or maybe I am in like a computer simulator. Or maybe I am in like this hallucinating dream world. I don't know. I wonder what my friends and family are thinking about my disappearance right now. I wish I could tell them I was alive._

 _I'm running out of charcoal. Hopefully, I'll find more wood who knows what else I might dig up in this skeleton pile?_

 _Hello! It's me again. I don't know how long ago since I last wrote, but something traumatizing happened to me again so I had to start writing this shit out. With a piece of rock. I think it's some sort of graphite, but I don't know._

 _So… ummm…. My body is rotting. I have fungus growing on my arm's wound, and there is this nasty smell coming from my intestines. Yeah. My wounds never healed nor scabbed over. I don't know how long it was since I last wrote, but the state my body is in right now is so disgusting that I just had to write this out. Oh shit. I gripped the pencil so hard that the skin on my finger just got ripped out._

 _Now, this should hurt like shit or I should be dead, but here I am still walking and talking somehow. Also, it seems that my nerves are dying out as well. Even my sense of smell is getting weaker. Or I am just getting used to the smell of rotting permeating from my body. I'm starting to lose feeling in my entire body. I can still feel like pressure or claws digging into me, but they don't hurt, and I don't feel warm or cold or prickly anymore._

 _I don't know how I am still alive. Like my heart is still beating and all that. I have thoughts that instead of a fantasy world I was in hell instead, but if I was in hell, I don't think hell should be this… what's the word… lax? If this was hell, it did a poor job at punishment._

 _Speaking of fantasy, it sort of feel like I am in a video game. I even start behaving like I am in a game. I named one of my skeletons ballsdeep010, and another skeleton microwavedgerbil. I even decided to act like my disgusting body was some sort of avatar with a curse which would explain all this rotting flesh. I named myself Lich because of my magic affinity. I know that it makes it seem that I am not taking the situation seriously,_ _but when considering that everything I know and love is gone, and I haven't seen anybody alive ever since coming here and I won't see my._ _Just look at it as like a sanity saver. Thinking this is all a game has been helping with my sanity a little._

 _Speaking of games, I can use spells! It's really weird. So, first, though I should state that I am now calling these shadow monsters Shadows. Yeah, I know. Real creative. Fuck creativity with names right now. So, once I made these skeletons, I sort of went exploring a bit. It turns out that every time I kill Shadows, I get stronger in a way. Like, my heart feels bigger, and it feels like something is filling my heart. After feeling this really weird sensation, I began to think about maybe my heart is like a mana storage and killing these Shadows restores mana and increases the storage._

 _After I killed more Shadows, I decided to make more skeletons to test out my theory. I am now a proud owner of some 500 skeletons. Now, it may seem like a nightmare to manage them all, but I sort of learned that I can program them in a way. I just state what the skeletons do in certain situations, certain tactics (now I am still trying to find a way to teach them how to apply those tactics.), and other stuff. Now, the problem is that they can't do any learning on the spot. They don't learn from their mistakes, and they have trouble adapting to changing situations. Like there was this one time, a room had this steep drop. The skeletons fought as if there was no steep drop. After realizing that I was losing too many due to them falling down, I had to order my skeletons to fight while considering that there is a massive fucking drop right next to them. They kept it in mind after I yelled at them and in the future, not one skeleton fell into a steep drop ever again, but I still had to step in and teach them common sense._

 _Now, I am familiar with how low-level undeads are considered dumb in games and are incapable of complicated tasks. That is untrue. The undeads are just incapable of learning by themselves. They need someone to learn for them and implant that knowledge into them through orders. For example, I ordered a couple of skeletons to do some bone carving. It's really hard, and it took me a long time to master it. I can't give any specific time because well I am in a cave. I think it has been a couple months or something due to how disgusting my body has become with decomposing body parts. Whoops. There goes my ear now. How my heart is still beating I don't know._

 _Anyway, back to bone carvings, it is really complicated and hard, but the skeletons can learn how to do it. I had them copy exactly what I did, and they did it exactly in one try. Now, they are bone carving pros. However, they can only copy carvings that I "teach" them. They can't make new styles of carvings. Although how fast they learned carving made my struggles feel like a joke. So yeah, the skeletons are like amazing autonomous… things. I still don't know how to consider these skeletons._

 _I can do other spells, but… it's not omnipotent. My first attempt at doing other spells was really cringeworthy. So, the first thing I did was do this really cringy chant, held my arm up and yelled Fireball. Nothing happened. Then, I started doing all sorts of variation with most ending in cringy failure. I even went as far as doing all sort of weeaboo shit. It eventually ended with me going all Greek philosophical and using the four "elements" of earth, fire, water, and air in tangent with the mana in my heart. It worked. My mana is converted to create and manipulate the four elements. How I do spells is like impossible to explain. I sort of feel like a connection to one of the elements, and I sort of bribe it to do something with my mana. The best way I can describe it._

 _I can also control darkness using a similar process to the four elements for some reason… Fuck logic. That went out the window when I decapitated a shadow with a "darkness slash". Man. If I just had a suit and a white mask, I could look like god damn slender man… that had rotting body parts._

 _Enough about me. Writing about what I have done so far makes me feel narcissistic. So… umm… I am in a weird cave system. Or should I call it a graveyard? So far, I have explored this cave, and it looks like a really complicated loop with rooms and branching paths from the maps that my skeletons have drawn while I had them explore. Lots of rooms with bones. Lots of rooms with bones in coffins. I even found this really fancy room with gold lining everywhere. There were even bones buried with weapons, but they are all rusted when I found them. I used my earth manipulation to get rid of the rust though. I gave them to my skeletons though._

 _One room, in particular, is weird though. There's a weird fancy ass magic looking door. Has this really fancy orb in the middle with some writing on the top. Can't read the writing. I tried opening it and all that but nothing works. I tried having my skeleton mine around it, but an earthquake occurred every time my skeletons made any real progress with mining. I put all hold on messing with the cave walls for now. Looks like I won't be able to just dig will-nilly._

 _More exploring needs to be done though. Been finding some nice shit, too. Now I just need to find where all these Shadows are coming from. You would think that I have committed genocide of these Shadows when considering that I send like 400 of my skeletons out to hunt every single one of those assholes., but they still exist in these caves. So, I think there is like this spawning area or something. I don't know. I don't like fighting the Shadows. After all, why hunt them myself? Fighting is scary as shit. All those movies with brave warriors facing down the enemy or these giant ass monsters with a straight face and a swinging sword. Yeah, right. Fuck that shit. If you actually enjoy fighting with your life on the line, you are either crazy or an idiot. My skeletons have pretty good durability anyway. The only way to stop them is to break their bones. Which is pretty hard to do it turns out especially when I reinforce them with metal._

 _Oh yeah. I can also make iron from mud! Who knew! Look at me breaking the laws of physics with…_

 _Sorry. Back again. I thought I saw something around that corner. Maybe I am just being para…_

 _*blood splatters*_


	2. Chapter 2

As Pyrrha was sitting in the chair waiting for Lich to come back, she began planning out her next steps. Sadly, she didn't have much information to work off of so it was quite difficult deciding what to do. For now, she decided to stay with Lich. Yes, he was shady and weird; however, she sensed no malicious intent from him. He hasn't made any moves on her, and he rescued her and fed her as well. Her aura wasn't damaged from eating the fish so the fish wasn't poisoned, and Pyrrha was sure that if Lich really wanted to, she would be dead by now. In addition, if he was a weird cultist and wanted to sacrifice her, then it made no sense why she wasn't tied up at the moment.

As a result, Pyrrha decided to stick with Lich until she has a better understanding of her situation. All she knows at the moment is that she was in a cave system with Grimm in every corner if Lich wasn't lying about the shadow monsters. With Pyrrha weaponless at the moment, she decided to wait for Lich to come back.

When Lich came back, he found Pyrrha absentmindedly throwing pieces of rocks at the wall. Her extremely accurate aim allowed her to hit the same spot on the wall so many times that it made this white mark on the cave wall. He whistled in admiration causing Pyrrha to snap her head toward Lich.

"Damn. Your aim is really good." Lich complemented Pyrrha, and she blushed in return. "Well, I finished scouting, and we should be able to avoid the big ones if we go right now."

"Where are we going?"

"My main base. This room was only temporary because I didn't want to drag you around while you were unconscious so I just made a room right beside the place where I found you."

"You made this room?"

"Yep." Lich emphasized the p to make a popping sound.

"How?"

"Well, I want to say magic, but then you would probably get mad again so I am just going to say my semblance." Pyrrha merely lifted her eyebrows in annoyance.

"You shouldn't get so sassy. I heard that girls don't like men who get sassy."

"And what would an 11-year-old know about romance?"

"I am 12!"

"So you kissed a boy yet?"

"Stop changing the subject!"

Lich merely laughed and placed a hand on Pyrrha's head. "Sorry. Just messing with you."

Pyrrha merely pointed her tongue at Lich and said, "Meanie!"

"Actually, on the subject of your age, would your parents be mad if I used bad words around you?"

Pyrrha widened her eyes in surprise and whispered, "What type of bad words?"

"Well… really bad words. Like the F word or saying God's name in vain which I will do a lot at times."

"Hmm… I don't know. My parents weren't really strict with bad words, but I never used them myself. Mom told me that using bad words hurt people so I should never use them myself. However, that never stopped my parents from stopping this stranger who kept "dropping the f-bomb" while I was sitting right next to him on the train so I guess you can. As for saying God's name in vain, I don't know. Nobody is really religious so I guess you can as well."

"Okay. Good enough for me. I will say a lot of bad words, and you will never repeat them okay?"

"Okay!"

"Now, what about fighting? I know you said that you can fight, but with what? Is it like self-defense?"

"Well, I was top of my class in all the combat classes. So, I can do hand to hand combat, I am great with the sword and shield, and I was the top marksman with a rifle. Other weapons like the spear, the sniper, or the Gatling gun, I was proficient at them. It wasn't until this year at school that we would make our own weapons as huntsman so I don't have a personal weapon though."

Lich looked at Pyrrha incredulously. "Are you a child soldier?"

"What? No! I. Am. A. Huntress in training! Big difference!"

"Not really… You know what. Different world. Different rules and morals. I won't question it. Did they teach you to kill in school?"

"Not yet. We haven't been able to go on eradication missions for Grimm yet. That's after we get our weapons and train with them for a while."

"No. Not Grimm. Humans." Pyrrha merely shook her head and responded, "Fighting rogue huntsman is a much more advanced course. We won't have that class until much later."

"I see. Well, If we see a Sha… sorry Grimm, stay back. I don't want you fighting with your fists yet. When we get to the main base, I'll let you take a look at some weapons I have. I think I have some armor that would fit your size as well."

With that, the two went back into the caves, and Lich waved his hand with a rumbling sound following the hand movement. Soon, the door glowed with a soft red light as if melted back into a smooth cave wall.

Pyrrha felt her mouth drop at the sight. She couldn't help but wonder what type of semblance Lich had. It was a semblance that she has never seen or read about. Then again, her father always said that the world was a very big place.

Lich promptly closed Pyrrha mouth for her and beckoned her to follow him as quietly as she could. With that, they were off. Thankfully, they weren't bumbling around too much because the moss in the cavern roof provided adequate lighting for the two. Enough to avoid tripping over the rocks. It seemed that the caver also had a dust vein as well because occasionally Pyrrha saw multiple dust crystals peering out of the walls, floors, and roofs of the caves. Pyrrha took special care when walking around them. A quick glance at Lich showed him doing the same exact thing, but with a hint of fear as well.

It was only about 5 minutes of walking until suddenly Lich stopped and motioned to Pyrrha to hide behind this large rock. Without hesitation, Pyrrha obeyed, and Lich put a hand into his robe to pull out this mirror on a stick. He stuck it above the rock to get a glimpse of the monster, and Pyrrha craned her head to see as well. She wished she hadn't.

It was a large shadowy spider. It's eight legs slowly crawling forward as it dragged its fat abdomen through the ground with this weird white string coming out as well. Its fangs glistened with a dark shine illuminated by the light from the glowing moss. Bone plating covered the spider; however, Pyrrha noticed one absent thing that was markedly different from all the Grimm she had seen so far. The spider was lacking a mask.

Lich and Pyrrha waited a few more minutes after the spider went further down the intersecting pathway before silently coming out of the rock. As they crossed the intersection, they made sure to avoid touching the silk left behind by the spider. Both knew enough about the ways spiders liked to catch their prey.

The two had five more similar risky encounters. One time, Lich literally made a tiny hole and shoved Pyrrha and himself in there. Sadly, he forgot to put in breathing holes so that Pyrrha almost suffocated. Pyrrha wondered how he was able to hold his breath for so long. When Pyrrha got fed up and asked why he wasn't fighting those things instead, his reply was that he didn't want Pyrrha to get hurt.

After the third encounter, Lich was very angry at how many giant Grimm were suddenly popping up. He said to Pyrrha that at most only one or two should pop up since he went on a massive killing spree recently, but five showing up all of a sudden was simply unheard of for him. It was as if they were all congregating in one spot.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip wasn't as eventful. There were a couple of small Grimm centipedes and dragonflies (small as in relative to the spider. They reached their legs in height.), but Lich quickly took care of them with well-placed fire balls or smashing them against the walls with a strong burst of wind. After seeing the show of strength, Pyrrha once again began wondering about Lich's semblance. Did he have more than one by chance? Was that even possible?

"Alright. We're here." Pyrrha stopped before this small door in front of them. In order to get through the door way, they had to crouch down and crawl inside. Well, in Lich's case, slide inside.

When Pyrrha emerged from the hole, she gasped in surprise. It was a massive cavern with three buildings; however, it was the number of bones that shocked Pyrrha. They weren't human bones or any bones she recognized. It reminded her of certain aquatic bugs, but these skeletons felt far more… primitive. Yes. Primitive was a good word to describe these strange exoskeletons.

"Weird question, but if these skeletons came alive and began moving around, would it scare you?" Pyrrha looked at Lich as if he asked her if he could drink bleach.

"Well, dead things aren't supposed to walk around so yes. It would scare me."

"So do things like zombies and skeletons exist up there."

Pyrrha was reminded of this zombie horror movie she watched when her mother was outside the house with her friends. She shivered in fear, and said, "If they were real, I don't think I could sleep."

"Good to know. Well, you see that building with three spikes on the roof? That's the armory. I make weapons and armor when I get bored. Weapons are on the right room, and armor is in the left room. Don't worry about size. Pick one and bring it to me. I'll make one that fits you. I'll be in the building with the one spike. Any questions?" Lich looked at Pyrrha and waited for her answer or question. Pyrrha was confused at how nonchalant Lich was at living in a cavern that was filled with exoskeletons.

"By any chance, you aren't in a cult, are you?" Lich looked at Pyrrha in what seemed to be confusion before his head pulled back in shock as his hood began shaking wildly as Lich looked over his attire and slapped his forehead.

"Oh. My bad. No. I am not in a cult for two reasons. One. I was the only walking talking thing in this entire cavern until you arrived. Two, I don't do any weird rituals and sacrifices or any weird orgies."

"Orgies?"

"Oh… Forget I said that. No. I am not a cultist."

"What's with all the bones then?"

"Oh umm… they are convenient… tools. Yep. Tools! For example, ummm… oh yeah… some of the weapons and armor are made from these exoskeletons so why move around too much when I can just live on with these convenient tools." Pyrrha's reaction to the awfully suspicious answer was to point at the other building and demand what was in it. "What's in the building with the two spikes?"

"Explosives. You know those crystals in the cavern. They are explosive when you crush them into a powder. Don't go in there without me. I don't want you to accidentally touch something. Do you want me to show you? I am seriously not a cultist. Please believe me. I really would show you my face, but I would seriously scar you cause it really is that ugly."

To emphasize that he was telling the truth, Lich went to the dust building and opened it to show that it really was filled with a bunch of dust and guns that were hanging from the walls. Pyrrha took a deep breath to make sure that she didn't smell anything suspicious, but only stale air met her nose.

To further drive in his point, Lich told Pyrrha to explore this cavern as much as she wanted to and assured her that he wasn't hiding anything scary. With that as his parting words, he went inside the one spiked building and left the door open.

Pyrrha didn't find anything suspicious at all. She examined the floor, walls, everywhere for any potential hidden rooms using techniques that she saw in a detective movie, but came up with nothing. She decided to at least equip with herself with a weapon. After all, he did give her permission. Now that she thought about it, maybe he wasn't a bad guy. What type of bad guy allowed his victims to equip themselves with weapons? Didn't that defeat the purpose? Then again… Pyrrha felt that even with weapons she wouldn't be able to defeat him.

Pyrrha went into the weapons room and looked it over. They were all the classic weapons. None of them looked like convertibles. She decided to go for the weapons that she was the most comfortable with which was the short sword and shield.

Once she chose her weapons, she walked back to the building that Lich was in. When she looked through the doorway, she saw multiple doors and hallways. Because she has seen enough horror movies, she decided to wait out in the entrance and scream for his name.

"Lich. Where are you? I chose my weapons!" Lich peeked his head out from the door closest to the entrance, scaring Pyrrha as she swiped at Lich. Lich quickly ducked as the sword passed over his head, and he exclaimed, "Watch it! I am not your enemy for crying out loud. Fuck's sake girl!"

Pyrrha merely pointed the sword at Lich and screamed, "You scare me!"

"You know what. I am not going to deal with this right now. So those are the weapon you chose? What about the armor?"

"I don't need armor since I have an aura."

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Go pick out an armor." Without waiting for a response, Lich went back into the room, and Pyrrha merely stuck her tongue out at him before throwing the weapons down and stomping off toward the building again.

When she went to the armor room, she was surprised at the sheer variety of armor. First, she came to the chain mail and plate mail. Pyrrha knew that she was already a fast-moving agility fighter so heavy armor would work against her. As a result, she decided to simply skip all the metal armor which was pretty much all the armor. She was about to walk out and complain to Lich until she came by this armor. It wasn't metal, but seemed to be like leather. However, it wasn't quite leather because she could see all the interwoven string that made up the armor. It even had this skirt at the bottom. Pyrrha felt a sort of connection to the armor. She decided to take a close look at the writing at the bottom of the armor, but she couldn't read it. It was some other form of writing. However, there was a picture of a stick figure with a spear and shield with a plumed helmet. Pyrrha decided to go with this armor.

On her way back, she was about to call Lich's name again when she heard talking from the room that Lich was in last time. Remembering Lich's words some time ago, she got suspicious and decided to investigate. She stealthily crawled into the room and saw Lich talking to himself and writing something on the wall with what looked to be chalk.

"What are you writing? I thought writing on the wall was bad." Pyrrha couldn't read what was on the wall, and she hoped it wasn't some sort of nefarious plan.

"Oh, it's just that today was a big day. Every time something big happens I like to write things out and organize my thoughts. I just couldn't believe it when I found you. I mean. I was just alone for such a long. Long. Long time. And when I saw you and how you were still alive and I was just so overjoyed and. And." Lich couldn't finish his sentence as he crouched down and began making broken crying sounds. "Damn it. Damn it. I'm crying and no tears are coming out. This is such fucked up shit, and…"

Pyrrha quickly hugged Lich. All thoughts of Lich hurting Pyrrha left her mind. Pyrrha knew what a broken man looked and sounded like ever since the day she saw her friend's father breakdown when one of his children who was a huntsman died on a mission. It was a sight she will never forget.

While she was hugging Lich, she couldn't help but feel that he felt awfully bony. Extremely bony for she could not feel any muscle. Her thoughts stopped when Lich stopped crying and merely replied with thanks.

"That was embarrassing. Sorry, you had to see that."

Pyrrha merely shook her head and asked if there was anything she could do to help. He merely replied no. Pyrrha looked at the writing on the wall once more and tried to make sense of it when Lich asked if she could not avoid reading what's on the wall since they were pretty personal thoughts. He said that he was going to erase it soon. Pyrrha merely answered that she couldn't read it.

"Seriously? Do you not have a writing system?"

"We do, but it is something else."

"Show me."

Pyrrha took the chalk and wrote her name on the wall. Lich merely stared at the writing for a bit before he asked her to stay in this room because he wanted to show her something. When he came back, he was holding what seemed to be a rib.

"Can you read to me what is on this rib? In the past, I was in this room, and there was this writing on this weird door. I thought it was important and carved the writing into this bone." Pyrrha took the bone and looked at the writing. It was indeed her written language.

"Yes. It says, "Only the living shall pass." Wow. That's creepy." Pyrrha looked up at Lich, but he seemed to just freeze at the words. All of a sudden, he grabbed Pyrrha by the shoulders and asked her to repeat what she just said one more time.

"It says, "Only the living shall pass", and that it is creepy." Lich merely stared at her and grabbed her wrist and jabbed his fingers into it.

"Ow, what are you doing?"

"Double checking your pulse. Oh my god. Pyrrha. You have to listen to me. We have to get you out of here as fast as possible."

"What? Why?"

"If what you say is true, then you shouldn't be here. You are alive after all."

As soon as he said that, an earthquake began shaking the cavern as Pyrrha grabbed onto Lich for support. "What's happening?"

"Earthquake. The timing isn't good." After what seemed like an eternity and Lich mumbling how he may have jinxed it and how it lasted far longer than it should have when it suddenly stopped. However, it was no longer silent. The caverns began echoing with small clicks as if thousands of insects were now alive and on the hunt.

"Fuckin shit."

 _Hi. Me again. Woah. Boy do I have a lot to write about. So where to start. I think I will start about my current "health" situation first. So… The smell and the rotting flesh are all gone! Hooray! Heck everything is gone! My eyeballs are gone, my intestines are gone, and my muscles are gone. My rotting brain practically leaked out of my earholes a week ago. Even 'little me' rotted away…. Everything is gone. Everything is gone! I only have my skeleton. I am literally a walking skeleton now…_

 _Actually, never mind. I may have exaggerated a little bit. Not everything is gone thankfully. I still have my heart. My still beating heart. I am not joking. It is still beating. Seriously. I don't know how even though it isn't connected to anything, and there is like no blood going through it. In a world of magic and fantasy and all this weird shit going on, a still-beating heart while the rest of my body rotted away. Do you know what this means? PROTECC! PROTECC this thing like my life fuckin depends on it. So, using my awesome earth magic, I made like this magic titanium box with four keys. That's right. Four fuckin keys. This box is like everything proof. I even blew it up with like multiple magic spells and not a scratch._

 _However, as soon as closed the lock, something magical happened. Okay. That just reads wrong now that I actually wrote it. What I meant is that the box and the keys are like magical right now. I just put my beating heart in the treasure chest, locked it with my four keys and then the box started glowing with like this weird black light and the keys started glowing too with everything started glowing and then… let's slow down. Okay. Everything started glowing and now I have a magical box with four magical keys now. They aren't glowing anymore, but they seem to radiate something._

 _Since I am pretty much a skeleton, I can't feel much. I mean I have like no nerves now. For some strange reason, I can still feel like light pressure, but nothing else. Since I am now a skeleton, I have gotten a lot more reckless with my fighting. Definitely not brave. Nope with a capital N. Mainly because I don't have much to fear. Like, I can afford to fight with 'valor' now since I am pretty sure that I can't die as long as my heart is still intact. Like how do you kill a bunch of bones? Smash it to pieces? Hah. I'd love to see you try since I reinforced everything! Titanium bones bitches! So, I decided to try out my close combat techniques like my sword fighting skills on the Shadows. My best friend was a role-player and a big fan of sword arts. I always liked going to those festivals and saw a bunch of sweaty men in metal armor smacking each other with blunted swords. Heh. It was hilarious._

 _So, I did some more exploring of the caverns. I actually explored everything since there are no more rooms. Okay, the weird thing is that this may be a magical time graveyard or something. So we have the magic door with the orb and starting from that room, we start going backwards in time regarding the skeletons. For example, the rooms closest to the door have skeletons with rusted or broken items that resemble modern products. I think I found this broken tv, too. However, as we start going away from the door, we start going backwards in time. I even found this room with all sorts of Greek/Roman stuff. Heck, in one of the rooms, there is a run down forge. I've been using that a LOT to stave off the boredom. My source of fire? My mana. Well, the caverns end at like the cavemen I think. The skeletons look like monkeys more than modern humans, too._

 _Okay. You know about the Shadow and how I wondered about where they were coming from? Apparently below us. I managed to catch a good view of how they spawned. So first, this nasty ass sludge comes leaking out from under the ground, and then voila! A Shadow is born. However, I noticed that not one of the Shadows are human. They are all animals. Also, they follow the same pattern as the human graveyard. The further you get from that door the more prehistoric the animals get. So, yes. I saw wooly mammoths. Fuck no! How the fuck do you call that a wooly mammoth! There is no way elephants and wooly mammoths can grow like fucking 80 meters! Holy shit! Thankfully, those guys are restricted to the big areas so I just like scamper around like a mouse when I go through the big rooms._

 _So umm yeah. What else. Oh! There is a three-headed shadow dog sleeping here. How can I possibly forget that a such a monster is sleeping! HAHAHA. Fuck this shit. I was never religious, but if there is really a god out there, I am praying as if my balls have fallen out (which it did) that the dog stays asleep. The location of the Hydra? Right above the door with the orb. The size of that monstrosity. Humongous. Oh, it can also change sizes. It did it while it was sleeping. I think it also spewed out fire from one of those heads… So, if it wakes up, I am fucked. I have planted like a crap ton of skeleton near that monstrosity so I can hopefully get the first blow if it wakes up, but… I don't like my chances._

 _Now you are probably wondering how I found that. Easy. In movies, always look up. So, when the cave was all done exploring I had the thought that I and my lovely skeleton minions should go explore everywhere but looking up as well! I found this weird hole, climbed up, and seen that shit._

 _Speaking of hidden rooms, I found one more. It was a room just filled with like a bunch of crystals each a different color. I don't know what they are. Like, I can scratch them with my fingernails so I know that they aren't diamond. However, I do know that they are explosive. I decided to have some fun one day and smacked one of them with a hammer. Whoops. The cave system just shook with one of those exploding. After that, I sort of just backed out of that room. Maybe I can use that room as like a backup plan in case that dog monster wakes up. I mean. Yeah I might get buried, but I don't need to breathe, I am bomb proof, and I can dig myself out. Well, we'll see. I'll probably need to make something that would be able to dig me out though. Hmm. Maybe a drill?_

 _Hey. So back again. The dog fuckin woke up…. Yeah… It wasn't fun. So, who thought it was a good idea to get a rabid dog, mix it with a hydra, give it magical powers, and place it in this cave. Reminds me of a fuckin dark souls boss. I ran away from that thing dark souls version too. Rolling galore! So yeah. Umm. That thing just spat out acid. Ate through titanium except for the titanium on my heart box for some reason. Hmm. Well, that box is magic now. Anyway, the important thing was that I wasn't going to fight that shit head on. One mutt just spat acid everywhere, another just spew fire like a dragon, and another shot fucking metal shards at me. Oh, the middle head was even armored with some type of cheating metal that I couldn't penetrate as well so fuck this shit._

 _I ended up running to the explosives room and blew everything up. Boy oh boy I wish I could fall unconscious. It's not fun falling for who knows how long with debris smashing at you at every opportunity. When I finally crashed, my entire skeleton body just broke apart. Thankfully, I still had an arm so I could drag myself to collect all the missing pieces. I even found my backpack that had all my necessities like my heart box, the keys, and some other stuff like some weapons and the bone I carved of that weird writing. I occasionally look at it to see if it is like a code or something. If it is a code, it is a damn good one._

 _Oh yeah. I even saw the floor repair itself, too. Turns out that this cave can repair itself! Maybe that's why it didn't like it if I dig around too much. Every time I mined too far (even if I mined downward), the cavern always sends out this massive earthquake as if it was threatening me. Didn't want to tempt fate so I always stopped. So yup. I ended up going deeper into the ground, and there is like this whole new cavern system UNDER the cavern system I was previously in. Cool huh. Maybe there is another cave system under this one as well. However, first, I am going to need to explore first. I just needed to calm down mentally after that chase and explosion and falling and writing this shit down has calmed me down somewhat._

 _Hi, I got eaten today. Yeah. I finally died. I bet everyone will wonder 'wait. If you died, how did you come back? How are you writing this shit?' Well, I have a theory, and it is that as long as my heart is fine, I will survive. Like I am positive that I got eaten, but then next thing I remember is me crawling out of the ground in a room filled with exoskeletons of some bug. Of course, all my upgrades to my skeleton body was gone, but I was back!_

 _After realizing the true importance of my heart, I pretty much hid the damn thing in a room instead of lugging it around with me like the past. Sadly… It has a returning function on it. Every time I get a certain distance away from my box and keys, they will always magically appear. Gave me a freaking scare. So, yeah. It would be very bad if it suddenly returned in a fight so I make sure to stay a certain distance away. I think the farthest I can be is like a km?_

 _Now you may be wondering how I got eaten. Well, let's talk more about the structure of this cave system. It is literally like a timeline. I was right. There is a cave system above and below us. Right now, I think I am in like the time period with a bunch of primitive insects and amphibians. Like there are spiders, scorpions, and like these weird ass salamander thingy shadows. Half of the room on the floor I fell into are flooded with a lake with some fish. Real fish, not any weird shadow fishies. I was overjoyed at that. At the very end of the cave system is this gigantic lake with a giant hole leading downwards. I think I found the entrance to the floor downwards. Didn't go through it. Magical world and deep waters don't mix well. The floor upwards was a lot harder to find. It was like in this room with a chunky wall at the end. It struck me as odd because everywhere else, the walls were smooth, but this wall was like ledges and chucks everywhere. It just screamed climb me so I did and voila! A door that I could go through! You know now that I thought about it, the cave system I was in was like an exact mirror of the cave system at the top. Minus all the flooded rooms._

 _Anyway, the cavern system at the top is like paradise compared to the other two. That was my first thought. I am serious. There were trees, and like this strong glowing ball of molten rock? At the top. The trees I think even had fruit. If it wasn't for the fact that I could see that the 'sky' was a bunch of rock, I would have thought we were outside. So I started exploring to see if this floor was a similar structure as the other two. Answer is yes. Minus the part in which all the rooms were much bigger, much more alive (I think I saw this little mouse!), and lot more bright. Oh and the distance between the 'rooms' are a LOT bigger. It took me 30 minutes for me to cross into the other room. Holy cow._

 _Now you might be wondering when I get to the part in which I get eaten. Yeah. It was the 'paradise' floor. I found skeletons. Skeleton of dinosaurs… You can see what's going to happen, don't you? Yeah. A fucking Shadow T-rex ate me. Just burst out of the fucking trees and ate me like candy._

 _You know. I think that I am perfectly content with staying down here. Fuck going up, that would mean that my box would have to come up with me, and I don't want my box being eaten. I just have a bad feeling about that. It's just bad. So, for the foreseeable future, my neighbors will be a bunch of bugs and the occasional salamander. Whoopy doo._


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you even talking about?" Pyrrha quickly shook off Lich's hands and glared at him.

"I am talking about how I believe that this is the land of the dead and that you have to get out of here. This is too much of a coincidence to consider something else. To think that I thought that this was sort of twisted dungeon made by some type of insane god." Pyrrha looked at Lich as if he had grown another head.

"Land of the dead? Do you know how stupid that sounds?" Lich merely stared back at Pyrrha.

"Do you have any other explanation?"

"You! Why is there another alive person if this really is the land of the dead! This is some sort of prank, isn't it?" Pyrrha angrily shouted at Lich while pushing him.

"Look. You haven't been in this cave as long as me, and you haven't seen the shit I have seen. Everything adds up to it being the land of the dead. Like the skeletons, the monsters, and the three-headed monster dog at the top floor!" The tension continued to rise as the two began arguing back and forth until Pyrrha asked this question. "Well then, how long were you in here for!"

Lich's posture immediately fell, and Pyrrha felt that if she could see his face it would be a look of defeat. He sat down on one of the chairs before replying, "I used a water clock to measure time. I timed it so that every drip was about a second and how the water droplets would accumulate causing this arrow to turn a revolution every 24 hours. I broke the damn clock after 60 years."

Pyrrha really wanted to yell at Lich for lying at her at this time, but she couldn't. She couldn't help but feel that he wasn't lying to her; however, something didn't add up. "You don't sound like you are more than 60 years old."

"I am way more than 60 years old. I told you that I simply broke the water clock after 60 years. That doesn't mean that time stopped. The reason why I sound young is because… of something like a curse." Lich stopped talking and began staring off into the wall before slapping his knees and getting back up.

"Look, I don't care if you believe me or not on whether this is the land of the dead or not. Heck, I am not sure myself. What we both care about is you getting out of here. I can take you out of here so let's go get prepared." Lich was about to exit the door before Pyrrha's hand shot out and grabbed Lich's wrist.

"Why didn't you leave before? Aren't you alive?" Lich didn't look down at Pyrrha's eyes. He merely stared straight ahead. "I told you that I am cursed."

"You told me that you were the only one here before me. If I leave, aren't you going to be alone again? You sounded pretty desperate when I first met you."

"And hold you here against your will? Even if I never told you, I would never forgive myself."

"But then why help me? You could just give me a map up there and I can go by myself."

"And let you get killed? Not a fat chance. Here let me ask you this. Why do you want to become a huntress? From what you tell me, it sounds like a very dangerous job with a lot of people dying."

"I want to be a hero to the people. I want to help."

"You want to risk your life to help others. Then, I will say this to you. I am going to risk myself to help someone as well. Do you have any idea how long I have existed here just doing nothing? Simply tinkering with some metal and playing around with weapons. I finally have the chance to do something meaningful, and it will break the monotone lifestyle I have lead so far. Besides, you aren't going to survive the above floor without my help. You are going to die, and I don't want that. You are going to get out of here alive, and I will give you my word that I will make damn sure that will happen."

Pyrrha let go of Lich's hand as she began crying. She tried to dry off her tears; however, it would not stop which was making her frustrated. She was a huntress-in-training. Heroes don't cry! They stay strong whatever the situation. She couldn't afford to cry, especially not in front of someone else.

"I was wondering when this would be too much for you. There's nothing shameful in crying in this situation. If you didn't cry, I would be a tad bit worried." Lich awkwardly hugged Pyrrha as she laid her head on his shoulder and began staining his cloak with her tears. After Pyrrha cried herself to sleep, Lich carried her to a pile of soft moss and laid her down.

Lich had a lot of work to do. First, he was going to need to capture a lot of fish and dry and season it for the journey upward. He did find a salt vein recently. Since Lich had his suspicions that this was the land of the dead, he didn't trust any of the fruit of the upper floor. He knew about the Greek myth of the dangers of eating underworld food. It would be better to stick with meat and protein from the animals... Even then, Lich was worried about the protein as well. The faster Pyrrha left the better it would be. Even so, Pyrrha was going to need to eat… Since Pyrrha did not have an adverse effect of eating the fish meat, he was going to stockpile on fish.

Next, he was going to need to make the weapons and armor for Pyrrha. It seems that she wanted the Greek style armor. He should have enough ingredients to make another set of armor and weapons. Maybe he should include a spear for Pyrrha as well. The farther she was from the enemy the better, and she did say that she could use a spear. He'll just provide both.

Finally, he was going to test out how good Pyrrha was at fighting. He doubted that he could protect Pyrrha 24/7 so he needs to see how much Pyrrha could handle herself. She did mention that she was a huntress in training so she was proficient in weapons use, but he needs to see how good she is. Pyrrha also mentioned something about aura, but from what Lich knew from Earth's media, aura wasn't anything special…

Lich finished writing down on the wall the things he had to do. It was quite the long list. With a heavy sigh, he began raising some skeleton workers. He didn't have any human skeletons, but the insect skeletons were good enough for hunting and getting resources. When Lich found Pyrrha, he made sure to deactivate all of his skeletons since he didn't know about the reaction she might give. It was a good decision as well.

However, Lich knew that he would need to break the news that he could control the dead to Pyrrha sometime soon. It was going to be a perilous journey back up, and secrets like this aren't going to be taken very well. Lich had no desire to repeat the decisions of every single stupid protagonist out there who was too afraid of there teammate finding out their secret. Although… Lich was going to keep one secret.

After Lich sent the skeleton workers off on their jobs, he went over to a small inconspicuous rock. He lifted it and used his magic to dig up the chest and the keys. He was going to need to tell Pyrrha about this, but he had no intention of telling her the true significance of the contents of the box. What type of idiot would tell another _human_ , the secrets to killing the person? Lich knew that as long as his heart was fine, he was unkillable. Lich didn't think Pyrrha would kill him, but even so, from his knowledge of human's past and nature… He wasn't going to risk it.

Pyrrha woke up to the sound of someone clanking away at a piece of metal. She slowly rose up and found herself on this makeshift bed of moss. She last remembered crying to sleep on Lich's shoulder and sighed in embarrassment. To think that she would discomfort her helper even more. Although Lich tried to sound as confident as he could, it was very obvious that he had no idea how to handle that situation.

She decided against sleeping again because of the incessant clanking so she decided to find out what was making the sound. When she exited the house, she was surprised at how much had changed. All of the exoskeletons were gone revealing a dirt floor. Instead they were all piled up in one corner of the room. The next surprising thing was that there was another corridor made which had a fire with a massive amount of fish drying on top of the fire. The steam was funneled away to a little hole that was on the top.

At last, she found Lich who was behind the weapons building with a forge that wasn't there before. Remembering Lich's ability to simply make rooms and doors appear and disappear at will, she decided to chalk it up to his ability. Lich looked up from his little project to see Pyrrha before resuming his hammering. .

"I see the sleepyhead is up." Lich didn't look up as he did one more swipe at the block of metal before placing it back in the furnace to heat it back up.

"If you think I could sleep with that clanking, you are wrong." Lich did not look remotely sorry as he simply shrugged and went back to his work.

"By the way, I've finished your armor and shield. I even got a javelin for you as well for any cases of long range stuff. They are all in that bundle over there."

"How did you make these things so fast?"

"Semblance of mine. It allows metal manipulation as well. It was one of the reasons I picked up blacksmithing as a hobby to stave off boredom. When you don't have internet and Netflix, you realize that you have a LOT of time on your hands."

Pyrrha didn't understand what Internet and Netflix was, but she assumed it was some sort of entertainment. She decided to leave Lich to his work as she went into the armory for some privacy. When she unwrapped the bundle, she couldn't help but gasp in amazement at the craftsmanship. She assumed it was going to be shoddy and crude due to the lack of any sophisticated weaponry, but it was on par with the weapons on Remnant minus the convertibility.

The armor was very similar to its predecessor in the armory with a smooth, light chest plate that would cover her entire torso and shoulder. She had no idea what the material was; however, she could see that it was some sort of string interwoven with some sort of metal. In addition, she found metal guards for her arms as well as legs that were surprising light. Finally, she had a skirt made of the same material as the chest plate that would go down to her knees with a red sash to top it off.

Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle at Lich's attempt at fashion. Lich probably thought that Pyrrha's attempt to shrug off the armor was because of how unfashionable armor could be which was true. After all, why wear armor when aura existed? After all, if an attack could get through aura, the chance of armor stopping it was pretty nonexistent. So instead, most hunters and huntresses thought it would be better to go and fight in style. However, Lich said to get armor with such finality, Pyrrha didn't get the chance to argue against him. Also, the armor wasn't bad… There was also a helmet, but Pyrrha didn't like helmets due to how it ruined her hair. She was willing to fight Lich on not wearing a helmet.

Pyrrha got ready to change out to put on the armor, but as she was taking off her clothes she got a good whiff of her body odor. It nearly made her puke in disgust. With that, she decided against ruining her armor with her body aura and decided that she could do with a bath first. Just then, she heard the door knock.

"Pyrrha. You in there?"

"Yeah. You can come in."

"Okay. I finished your sword. Why didn't you try on your armor?"

"I smell really bad so I was wondering if I could shower first. I don't want to stink up my new armor."

"Wow. I wonder when the last time I bathed. Well, I don't have a shower room, but I do know of a place where we could bathe. Sadly, it is outside of this room so we have to go brave a couple of those Grimm creatures… You alright with that?"

"You said my weapons were done right? Then, it should be fine. Having a good workout before bathing sounds good."

"If you say so, go get your stuff. I'll just go grab my bathing stuff."

Lich was about to go when Pyrrha's stomach began growling. She placed her hands over her stomach and blushed.

"Never mind. If you go to the first building, go down the left hallway to the fourth room with this picture of a ham. That's the newly designated kitchen. You should find a whole variety of dried, smoked, and cooked fish in there. As well as some mushrooms… However, I would stay away from them since I don't know if they are poisonous or not."

"Don't worry about poison since my aura can take care of it. Duh."

"Really? Aura can do that?"

"Uh… Yeah? It's like one of the first things you learn. Huntsman use it in the wilderness so they can avoid food poisoning better."

"Huh. That is very useful information… Maybe you could eat fruit in this caverns because your aura would fend it off… Good to know." With that Lich wandered off with Pyrrha looking at Lich's back wondering at how he could forget the basics of aura despite having a semblance himself. She merely shook her head and chalked it up to living by himself for over 60 years.

She picked up her weapons as well as her sword and feasted on fish and mushrooms. She practically cleared out three cabinets worth of food before she felt satisfied. Once she ate her fill and washed down the contents with some chilly mineral water, she walked back out and headed toward the entrance of the cavern room. As she walked by the second building, she realized that she didn't get a gun yet.

She found Lich with a bag next to him, and he was in full-fledged plate mail armor. Pyrrha doubled back in surprise at the new appearance.

"Isn't that armor heavy?"

"Nope. You ready to go."

"Wait! I didn't get a gun yet."

"Ahh. Yeah. I could never get those crystals to work properly so all the guns in that building over there have a possibility of blowing up in your face. Just don't worry about it."

"And just checking, but why the plate mail armor?"

"The cloak is too flowy, and the chance that you would get a peek at my body was pretty damn high. I decided that it was better to switch to the armor. Plus I get more protection as well!"

"There are so many things wrong with what you just said. Like what is with you and armor! Armor is practically useless because of our aura!"

"Okay. Look from what you have told me aura is produced by all living things, and it can protect us from bodily harm. I am sorry, but I don't see how aura can protect me from a freaking claw ready to crush in my skull."

"Well, it can! How can you not know this when you have your semblance since semblance uses up your aura! That means you already have your aura unlocked and how do you not know the basics of aura?!"

"Look. I think we may have different ideas on what aura is. While you were eating, I decided to do some pest control so lets just go before the caves fill back up again."

With those words, Lich crawled back out into the cavern halls. Grumbling, Pyrrha followed after Lich, making sure she said her complaints loud enough for him to hear. However, she quickly shut up once they were out in the dangerous hallways. She used hand gestures to ask which directions, and Lich gestured to follow him.

They were almost to the room with the pool until a massive Grimm appeared blocking the entrance way. Pyrrha felt a small hint of annoyance because the door to the room was right there in front of them. Sadly, a massive salamander Grimm just had to be blocking the doorway. Lich looked down at Pyrrha, and a wordless conversation took place. Once they came to an agreement, they split.

Lich started the attack with freezing two of the salamander's legs; however, he only succeeded in pinning down one of the legs before he was forced to cut off his stream of ice and roll to avoid the swipe from the other foreleg. Afterwards, Lich began shooting rock bullets into the salamander's face, pissing it off. With a roar, it began turning to face Lich.

This meant that the Grimm's back was turned to Pyrrha. She took advantage of this situation by charging forward and began cutting at the legs of the salamander. After a couple of swipes, she was able to cut off a chunk of the leg causing the salamander to hiss in pain as it began to turn its head towards the red haired girl.

Lich wasn't going to let the Grimm switch attention to the more fragile human so he quickly charged forward and stabbed a spear of darkness into the unfrozen foot of the salamander. With a roar of anger, it tried to chomp on Lich, but he quickly cartwheeled away.

Pyrrha was shocked at how agile Lich was in his plate mail armor. Despite how heavy it looked it must have been quite light for him to do all those maneuvers without any difficulties. After all, Lich didn't look very muscular. While Lich continued to deal damage to the salamander with his semblance, Pyrrha was busy trying to dodge the tail swipes. It seemed that the tail had a mind of its own as it continued its relentless attempts to squash Pyrrha. This stalemate continued until the tail switched targets to Lich. The tail made a low sweep for Pyrrha which she dodged by black flipping over it, but it did not stop and continued its sweep straight into Lich's chest sending him crashing into the wall and pinning him under the fallen debris. The Grimm tried to take advantage of it by raising its wounded foot to try and crush Lich.

"Lich!"

Pyrrha immediately jumped onto the salamander's back and stabbed her sword into the Grimm's nape. The Grimm immediately reacted to the sudden intrusion by bucking; however, it failed to throw off the annoying pest on its back. It took all of Pyrrha's strength to avoid being thrown off by the salamander. Suddenly, the salamander stopped bucking. Confused, Pyrrha looked around to see if she could find the reason. She did when the salamander began to tip over with its back headed straight for the cavern's wall.

"Oh."

"Pyrrha!"

A large crash echoed throughout the cavern as the Grimm shoved its back into the wall in an attempt to squash the red-haired girl. Due to its frozen and injured legs, it had a difficult time in righting itself back on four legs. In its attempt, it grinded its back even more into the cavern wall. Lich's horror quickly morphed into hatred for the overgrown salamander only grew.

He charged the salamander and began hurling as many attacks as he could. He summoned a massive sword of darkness and began haphazardly swinging it at the salamander's exposed neck. Due to its awful position, the Grimm was unable to fight back properly as Lich continued attacking the salamander's neck with wrath. Finally, after numerous swipes at the salamander's neck, the Grimm's head fell off with the rest of the body following soon after. Lich quickly caught Pyrrha's body before it hit the ground. Lich noticed that there was some sort of energy shield around Pyrrha's body when he caught her.

"Owww…. I don't think I will be doing that again anytime soon."

"How are you alive?"

"My aura." Pyrrha answered as if it was common knowledge.

"Aura can do that?"

"Yes! What did you think aura was?"

"Not a forcefield."

"What?"

"Anyway, just don't be so stupid like that! Being heroic doesn't translate to being suicidal!"

"You were going to die if I didn't do something so drastic! Would you rather I watch you die? That defeats the point of why I wanted to be a huntress!"

"Dying on your path to be a huntress is counterproductive!"

The two began glaring at each other with the salamander's corpse slowly dissolving behind them, neither one of them wanted to give in.

"Pyrrha. Although I am thankful for your help, it was entirely unnecessary for you to put yourself at risk like that. I was perfectly fine."

"Oh, really. From what I have seen so far, you weren't even using your aura! If you took that hit, you would have been squashed."

"No I wouldn't have. My body and this armor is stronger than it looks. Just. Fine. If you want to be all heroic like that, fine. But my condition is that you have to get a lot stronger. You are simply dead weight right now."

"What!"

"I am not lying. I could have taken done that salamander with one hit if you weren't there. I could have whipped up a firestorm or even created a massive earth spike to pierce the Grimm, but then you would have been caught in the attack. The firestorm would have either burned you or suffocated you while the earth spike would have destabilized the cavern. I held back because I was afraid of hurting you. I won't ask you to give up on helping others at the cost of your own fitness. However, make sure that you are strong enough to do so. Now let's go in before another Grimm comes along."

Without another word, Lich went through the door leaving Pyrrha shocked with her mouth open. The sound of clicking quickly snapped her out of her chance, and she quickly followed Lich not wanting to be left behind.

When she entered the room, a vast beautiful underground lake met her eyes. It was lightly lit up not with fungi but with soft glowing rocks at the roof of the cavern. The crystal clear lake had a distinct blue color that complemented the bright glowing rocks under the water. Numerous boulders also were scattered around the lake. Pyrrha knelt down to touch the water, and it was surprisingly quite warm. Perfect for bathing.

"Pretty cool right. I hope the temperature is alright for you. I sorta lost most of my sense of touch so I can't really feel heat very well. Well, here is some cheap substitute for soap that I got from the fruits on the top floor and two towel. If you need anything else, just give me a holler. I'll be over there behind that cluster of boulders. Don't go in to the deep end of the lake because it gets very hot over there. It turns out that there is a magma vein that heats up the water in the other room, and the water cools down as it flows into this room."

Pyrrha nodded in affirmation as she took the bag from Lich. Soon after, he jumped into the lake completely covered in armor and began walking towards the cluster. Shaking her head, Pyrrha quickly stripped off her clothes and slowly waded into the waters. She found this nice spot next to a rock as she began washing her hair and scrubbing her body down with a towel that she dabbed some 'soap' onto. It was a nice fruity smell. The only thing she wish she had was some shampoo because Pyrrha could tell that if she used this 'soap' on her hair, it would wreak havoc on it. Once she was done, she laid back onto the rock and began soaking in the warm waters once more. She soon became bored, however, and decided to strike up a conversation.

"Lich."

"Yeah?"

"What did you mean by you being cursed?"

She heard something dropping and some cursing before she heard a response. "Well, I am half-dead."

"What?"

"The reason why I won't show my body is because… my body is kinda like a corpse, and it looks disgusting. I only say half-dead because my heart is still beating. That's why I said I think this place is the land of the dead because it is the only explanation for my condition. That said, one advantage of this body is that I don't need to eat anymore."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Haven't eaten for a long time. More like I can't eat because my stomach rotted away."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I came to peace with it a long time ago."

"It must be awful."

"Oh, it is."

Pyrrha began berating herself for asking such a sensitive question. Of course, asking about a curse would be sensitive. An awkward silence fell between the two occupants of the room. Until Lich broke the silence once more by asking for a deeper explanation for aura and semblance which Pyrrha happily obliged.

Once she finished with her mini lecture, Lich replied, "Oh… than… I think I should stop calling my abilities semblance and just go back to calling it magic."

"What? But that is even more ridiculous. Magic doesn't exist."

"Well, here me out. First, I want you to reserve judgement for magic not existing until you see this box. I can guarantee you that it is magic. Second, I am going to be honest with you, but I don't have an aura. It is not that I haven't unlocked it, but more of I don't have it."

"What? But… all living things have aura."

"Pyrrha. I am going to be truthful. If you see my body, I am not one-hundred percent alive."

"How bad?"

"Really bad. It might give you nightmares."

"You're not a Grimm, are you?"

"Nope. I don't have any shadowy body parts."

"Good."

"Not going to try and sneak a peak at me to see if I am lying?"

"You've been really nice to me so far, and I don't see much of a reason to doubt you. I'll trust you."

"… Thanks. That means a lot to me."

Pyrrha leaned her head back against the rock. It felt nice in the waters. It made her want to feel that she could simply escape her situation. She was in a cave with countless amounts of Grimm all hungry for her flesh. There was a possibility that she was in the land of the dead. Her only partner was a half-dead man with no aura with mysterious powers that he couldn't use to his full ability because of her. The possibility of Pyrrha escaping and seeing her family again was growing smaller every time she thought more deeply about her situation. She began bringing her legs up and grasped it as she curled up and put her head on top of her kneecaps. Suddenly, she heard some sort of music coming from Lich's direction which caused her to snap her head back up.

"Lich? What's that music?"

"Ah.. whoops. Sorry about that. Ever since I have been gotten to a certain…uhm… threshold, for the lack of a better term, the air sort of vibrates around me if I don't pay attention. Since sound is just air vibrating, I can practically radiate music from me. I have to consciously squash the vibrations so every time I get distracted or I just don't feel like giving attention to stopping the air vibrating around me, music starts playing. If you want, I can stop it again."

"No. No. It's actually quite pleasing."

Pyrrha could tell it was some sort of happy waltz with the sounds of what seems to be a fiddle that echoed throughout the cavern. It was the music that allowed Pyrrha to banish her dark thoughts to the darker corners of her mind.

"Uhm. Pyrrha. Just checking, but are you alright? I sort of saw you curling up a few moments ago. If you want to talk, I am here."

Pyrrha began biting her lips, a habit that she never managed to break, before she replied, "It's nothing."

"If there is one thing I learned about woman during my college years is that when a girl says that it is nothing. It does not mean it is nothing."

"Fine. I just don't like the situation I am in. It feels very…"

"Hopeless?"

"Yeah."

"When you leave this place, what are you going to do?"

"What?"

"One of the things that kept me sane for a short period of time was thinking about what I was going to do if I ever got out of here. Of course, I had to switch tactics, but it worked for some time. So, c'mon. Tell me about it."

"Well, I am going to see my family again. Then, I am going to continue training to become a huntress."

"Anything else? Any goals?"

"Well, while I am attending Sanctum academy, I want to try out for this tournament. See how far I can go. I have always been quite competitive, and I am the top of my class in sparring so I want to see how far I can go."

"You like sparring?"

"Yep!"

"Heh. Can't say the same for me. I don't like fighting in general."

"But you fight the Grimm pretty well."

"Out of necessity."

"Well, I also spar out of necessity as well. I have to be good at fighting if I am going to become a huntress."

"Okay. Why do you want to be a huntress? I know you said you wanted to help people, but why?"

"… I was an only child, but I had someone who was like an older brother to me. He was a huntsman, and the way he just helped others really made me look up to him. His favorite phrase was 'one act of kindness can have a huge impact.' It was because of him really that I wanted to become a hero. A huntress. In fact, it was also him who taught me how to fight. One day though I sort of got over confident and walked right into a Grimm's nest. Thankfully, he was also there. However, I was the only one to make it out alive. I want to be a huntress to keep his ideals alive."

"I see. One fair bit of warning though. That ideal you are trying to keep alive is a very dangerous ideal for someone who is weak. You are going to need strength to back up your words. Otherwise, it is empty. So far, with your strength, it is only going to get you killed."


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the bathing time was spent in silence. Realizing that Lich may have gone a bit too far with the last part of his little "pep" talk, he decided to give Pyrrha some space. She did not need any reminders of death, but he just had to bring it up. The centuries of no social interactions has done a number on much of his social skills. That's right. Centuries. Even though he broke the water clock in despair, he still had a decent grasp of time after watching that droplet drop. Every second. Lich quickly shook his head. It seems that he needs to practice on subtlety and staying sane once more.

After another peek at Pyrrha to make sure that she wasn't thinking of committing suicide, he sighed in relief when she was simply washing her clothes. Suicide. What a word. So much emotion and despair crammed into one word. Lich no longer had the option of suicide sadly. He contemplated many times; however, he could never truly go through with it. However, the box decided to take matters into its own hands, removing the option for Lich. Pyrrha, on the other hand, was a lot more fragile. Lich hoped that she would be strong enough to avoid the suicide option. He would hate to lose the one alive companion he has finally obtained after so long to something pitiful such as suicide. At least until all hope is lost. If she could not escape… he did not have the strength to stop her if that was the case. If anything, he would envy her.

Lich went back into the cover of his boulder and looked at his skeleton hands. He probably should show Pyrrha his real body, but he had his misgivings for he was not used to his body himself. Even though he has been living as a skeleton for centuries, he has never gotten used to it. How could he think about showing it to others if he has not accepted it himself? Even so, if Pyrrha truly insisted on seeing his body he will show it to her. Until then, he has no reason to flaunt his body in front of her. It was one of the reasons he switched to plate mail armor. There are very few creatures who can puncture this titanium alloyed armor. He tested it against as many enemies as possible. Only 3 could truly go through it. The best the rest can do is dent it.

Since it seemed that Pyrrha was almost done, he began strapping on his armor once more. Since he also took the time to clean his armor, it had a certain shine to it. Lich was thankful that the light wasn't that good in the caverns or else he would be a walking beacon for all the Grimm that walked by. He was probably going to need to camouflage his armor though for the above floor.

"Lich? Are you done?"

"Yeah. Coming out."

He saw Pyrrha already with her armor on. He noticed that she folded up the rest of her clothes and placed it neatly next to the bag. Lich walked over and began organizing everything for the return trip.

"How is the armor?"

"Pretty good. You got the measurements pretty well."

"When you exist as long as me doing nothing, one of my entertainments was estimating stuff. I got pretty good at that. Then, I got bored again. You ready to go?"

Pyrrha merely answered with a nod as they began sneaking back to the main room. Thankfully, nothing blocked their way completely. Although there were still encounters, it was possible to evade most of the Grimm. The others were quickly dispatched with quick swings of Pyrrha's sword or a couple of well-placed spells by Lich.

When they finally managed to reach the main room, Pyrrha couldn't help but groan a sigh of relief. When Lich told her that the salamander was one of the weaker Grimm, she couldn't help but be afraid of what other horrors the caverns held. Following Lich to the kitchen, Pyrrha began eating while Lich got some things ready and began explaining his plans to get Pyrrha home.

"Alright, I am going to try to make this as short and as concise as possible. First, our goal. We need to get you to the top floor and through that door with the orb. If what the writing on that door is true, you should be able to pass with no trouble. Now getting you there is the real hard part. The path is going to be filled with Grimm and all sorts of terrors."

"You mean there are other enemies than Grimm?"

"Pyrrha, you have no idea. For example, there is like this slime in the above floor. Stay the fuck away from those. If we do have to fight those things, aim for the fleshy core they got. Now, where was I, yes, to get to the top floor, we have to fight through this floor, the hell hole of the above floor. Then, we would be on the top floor where we have to bypass this gigantic three-headed fuckin dog, and then you will be out of here."

"Is the above floor that bad?"

Lich looked at Pyrrha's, and replied with a dead tone, "It makes this floor feel like a baby zone."

"Oh."

"Continuing on, considering that the floors all have the same layout with only the size being different, with measurements from my scouts, I have concluded that it would take about a month to get you to our objective."

"Scouts?"

"Yes. I'll show them to you now."

Lich waved his hand, and a gust of wind closed the door. Pyrrha immediately went on guard as she reached for her weapons. Suddenly, this little scorpion exoskeleton crawled up onto the table and began dancing as best as it could with its little eight legs. Not what she was expecting, Pyrrha felt her mouth drop and the weapon slip from her grasp.

"That is my little scout. I think I should tell you about another ability I have. I can control dead things. It's why I chose a cavern full of dead skeletons as my base… You are taking this news far better than I thought."

Pyrrha folded her arms and stared back up at Lich. "I have been through a lot. I think being tired made this easier for me to accept. Is this what you meant by magic? If so, you have convinced me."

"Nope. I have something much more magical. So, you don't mind if I use this ability around you more?"

Pyrrha warily stared down at the scorpion making a fool of itself on the table. "I think I can handle it."

Lich heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay. But first, I want to desensitize you a little bit. Is that all right?"

"What do you mean by desensitizing?"

"I'll just slowly introduce you to them."

The door opened by itself, and a dead spider crawled into the room. "Now, don't get too attached to these corpses cause they are practically going to get destroyed in droves on our journey. Now, this little guy is fucknuts. Go to that corner over there, fucknuts."

After Pyrrha got a good eyeful of the dead spider, it moved to the corner along with the formerly dancing scorpion. However, her eyes went back to the doorway as another dead skeleton walked over. This time it was a salamander. "This little guy is named mofo1234. Wave hi."

The salamander did a sad attempt at waving with one of its front paws at Pyrrha before joining the other two dead creatures at the corner of the room. Pyrrha didn't get the chance to wave back since another dead creature quickly took its place. "This little guy is Drank2much."

The pattern repeated itself so many times that the corner quickly began piling up with all the dead skeletons piling up on each other, staring at Pyrrha. Normally, this would be unnerving to Pyrrha; however, instead of feeling nervous, she felt annoyance at how Lich was introducing them one by one to her. It was quite infuriating to listen to all the stupid names that Lich had given his little dead corpses and forcing her to listen to every single one. Eventually, she had enough.

"Enough! Just how many are there?!"

"A lot."

"Okay. Then instead of introducing them one at a time like that, just show it to me all at once!"

"You sure. Doesn't that pile over there scare you?"

Pyrrha looked at the corner with all the dead things piled up on top of one another simply staring at her. She swore that she saw this little spider wave one of its forelegs at her as the staring contest continued.

"No."

"Great. It worked. Alright. Let's go back outside. I am going to show you most of them at once now."

Pyrrha followed Lich outside the house and stood there shell-shocked as she saw the organized chaos in front of her. There were working undead little creatures everywhere. There were some moving containers of mushrooms and fish around while another line was tending to this fire. Some were taking out weapons and cleaning them, and another was working on making what looked to be this sparring ring.

"Are you serious? Why didn't I see these guys before?"

"Cause I hid them all." Pyrrha began staring daggers at Lich; however, he simply shrugged his shoulders and walked back into the house. She took one last look at all the new found workers before following Lich back inside.

"So how do these little guys work?"

"I don't know. I tried testing out my powers, but I could never reach a definitive conclusion to their inner workings. As for controlling them, I just control them like an extra limb I have. To be honest, I don't know how any of my powers work. I tried understanding it, but I couldn't wrap my head around it. In the end, I just gave up and that says something considering I wasted like a century and useless experiments to try and understand my power."

Lich was about to go on; however, he was interrupted by a large explosion. Pyrrha immediately went into defensive position, but Lich did not look surprised at all. At least, to the best of Pyrrha's knowledge considering his face was still covered up.

"Aren't you going to investigate?"

"Ehh. It's just my minions experimenting with the explosive materials."

"You mean Dust?"

"Dust? Dust doesn't explode."

"Uhh. Yes, they do."

"Look this is dust. Look. See? No explosion."

"Not that dust! The explosive things you are working on are called Dust."

"That is a stupid name and yep. Experimenting with Dust. Trial and error with explosives isn't that scary when you have already dead things working on it. I giving up with guns since all of my background knowledge comes from using guncotton or black powder to use a bullet. For some reason, these little pricks don't follow the same ideology as my world so my gun designs don't seem to work very well. It probably has to do with the metal or something, but right now, I am more focused on creating grenades. We are on a time crunch after all."

"Well, you are partially right. You do need specialized metal to handle the explosive force of Dust. Ordinary metals will get blasted apart."

"Good to know. At least, I can still make frag grenades or even incendiary grenades."

Pyrrha eyed Lich warily. She hoped that he did understand that they were in an enclosed area in a cavern. If he screwed up with the explosions, it could end with them suffocating or getting crushed to death.

"Anyway, so where were we? Ah yes, the trip to the top floor. It's going to take a month. Now, there is something I will have to warn you about. The floor we are in right now is completely different from the terrain above floor. The floor above which I will now dub the Deadly Floor or DF is a lot more 'alive' than this floor."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it has a fake sun up there with a bunch of trees and plants. Other than that, the rest is mainly Grimm and deadly monsters like a fuckin giant crocodile. Everything tries to kill you up there so when we get to the DF you need to be a lot more careful. Like seriously, the river was once fucking acid. A RIVER OF ACID. WHY? It looks like water, and it wasn't like eroding the banks or something. But no, as soon as I decided to jump in that river to escape a bunch of annoying cockroaches, it turns out to be fucking acid!"

Pyrrha was starting to get a bit nervous from the ranting Lich was giving off. It seems that he really hated the DF, and his rising voice was not in any way contributing to Pyrrha's understanding of the DF's dangerousness. Instead, it only made her more confused as to what is up there. Deciding that staying on the topic of the DF wasn't a productive move at the moment, Pyrrha decided to move things along by asking about what to expect on this floor.

"Well, nothing new really. Just a bunch of caves and tunnels. The enemy aren't as diverse as the freaking DF. Just mainly bugs and salamanders. Stay away from the bodies of water though. Go into the wrong ones and all sort of nasty shits are hiding in the water. It's not this floor I am worried about. It's the DF I am worried about. We could clear this floor in like a week max. It would normally be a day's jog for me, but unlike me, you will get tired, and you will need sleep. Rest areas can be made quite easily by me so no need on keeping checkpoints. Also, we would probably get targeted by a shit ton of Grimm which I won't be able to one-shot so we will be slower. A lot. Heck, if we get lucky, we might even reach the end in only 5 days! Any other questions?"

"What will the top floor be like? You mentioned a giant dog?"

"The top floor will probably be the easiest. From the stories you have told me, the top floor will have the Grimm's you are familiar with, and it is the smallest out of all the three floors. If you follow this path, you can get over there in like 2 days. The only problem is that well the three-headed dog… leave it to me. I can deal with it. Any other questions?"

"The DF floor. What type of enemies do we have to expect?"

"You know what dinosaurs are? Giant monstrous lizards from the prehistoric times."

Pyrrha shook her head as a negative. Much of the history before the four kingdoms were unknown so there was no prehistoric history class in school. Once Lich heard that, he merely shook his head.

"Imagine them as a wide variety of giant reptiles that would love to eat you. I think you should also expect a dragon because I am pretty sure I saw one of those flying around. Anyway, dinosaur Grimm are the main threat. Look. If I tried to explain all the enemies to you, I would probably confuse you more. I do have a list of the threats we can encounter. It's written on the wall in the room with the green door on the right hallway. Anything else?"

Pyrrha filed away that information so she would check it out later. "Next is supplies. How are we going to deal with food, maintenance of weapons, water, and other essentials."

"I've sent my little minions ahead to plant food and water ahead of us. They'll hide them on these little clefts in the ceiling so if we need any food or water we just wave, and they'll carry it down toward us. I'll have them plant sufficient food and water for the entire trip. As for the maintenance…" Lich picked up the metal clothe hangar in the room and began twisting it up using his magic as well as creating a hammer out of the dirt.

"I am a walking forge so…"

"Okay. Is that everything?"

"Yep. I think. It's been a really long time since I had to communicate plans to someone else, but I think I communicated all the important bits. Now let's spar. I need to know about your combat potential to see how much slack I have to take up."

"That is just rude."

"Still true."

"I don't think its fair though. You can use all those cool spells, and I haven't even unlocked my semblance yet…"

"Oh don't worry. I won't use spells against you. This will purely be a close combat spar. No spells with only weapons." Lich walked out of the house and towards the sparring ring that his minions had set up while Lich and Pyrrha were inside chatting.

"Wait. I thought you don't use weapons." Pyrrha noticed how the sparring ring was finished and the skeletons were now bringing in weapons from the weapons building.

"I said I was a spellcaster and that I don't need weapons. Not that I can't use weapons. All those weapons you saw in that building, I can use them all really well. Everything was self-taught with some basis in some fighting techniques that a friend of mine taught me. Heh. Good times. He still was a douchebag every time he stabbed me with that fencing sword. Anyway, in the DF, I met these velociraptor Grimm that were really good at dodging ranged attacks so most of my spells were practically useless. Not to say that all my spells were useless against them because I could still use homing spells or large AOE spells against them. Mainly AOE spells because those bastards quickly learned to use those homing spells to try and hit me with my own spells. So I decided to try out close combat against them, and I probably spent a good century or so getting my ass beaten by them until I got good."

Pyrrha merely shook her head at Lich's exaggerations with time and continued watching him pick out a weapon. While he was picking out a weapon, she decided to spend some time stretching. Suddenly, she stopped when Lich asked if she was comfortable sticking with her weapons or if she wanted to switch. Pyrrha replied that the sword and the shield were her favorite weapons since it was what the hunter she looked up to used as well.

He merely nodded before he strapped this massive ceramic plate around his chest plate and picked up a tiny little dagger as he got onto the sparring ring and got into a fighting position. Pyrrha began glaring at Lich.

"I thought no spells."

"No spells. Nothing. I promise. Everything will be purely physical for me. Although you can use your aura." This only made Pyrrha tighten her grip on her weapon even more.

"Are you looking down on me? I was at the top of my class at _Sanctum_ Academy. You seriously think you can beat me with that dinky dagger without any aura?" Lich merely tilted his head and shrugged.

"When I saw you fight that salamander Grimm, it wasn't all that impressive. There was this one show that I watched that said you don't fight rabbits with cannons. I think that was how it went. I'm not sure. This dagger should be enough for you." If there was one thing that Pyrrha hated, it was being looked down upon. Even though she won every single match at her school, she made sure to treat every opponent with the respect they deserved before and after the match even if they fought dirty. It seemed that Lich needed a lesson in showing respect to his opponents after all those years without any human contact.

"What's the rules for this match. You don't have any aura so we can't use aura as an indicator."

"The rules are you win if you can crack this ceramic plate. Pretty easy to crack. Just a tiny scratch would be enough. I win if you…uhhh…" Lich tapped the plate as he said it.

"Run out of aura?" Lich nodded in affirmation.

"As soon as this rock hits the floor, the match will start." He threw a rock into the air, and Pyrrha waited for the rock to reach the floor. As soon as the first click was heard, Pyrrha charged forward with her sword as she attempted to quickly gain the initiative to crack the ceramic. However, her blade was suddenly stopped. Between Lich's two fingers.

"Tut. Tut. You are too impulsive. I am a lot faster than you are." Lich quickly pulled in Pyrrha as he kneed her in the stomach and while she was lifted into the air from the sheer force, she felt numerous stabs from the dagger all over her arms and legs before she was kicked once more in the same spot and hurled away. Pyrrha began nursing her arms and legs. Surprisingly, her stomach didn't hurt as much.

"I see so pain does go through. However, why aren't you coughing then? I am pretty sure that I hit your diaphragm… Ah… Must be the armor. Spider silk is quite a good material for reducing shock. Told you that armor would be a good investment. Well then. C'mon. Show me more." Lich once more got into a defensive position as he began taunting Pyrrha to come at him.

This time Pyrrha was far more cautious in approaching Lich. She edged closer, bit by bit with her shield raised high and braced it on her chest. With the shield between her and Lich, she tried to edge closer to Lich while keeping a close eye on him. He was incredibly fast with excellent reaction time which meant that she had to guard her front well. She had to force him to spend more time and energy in trying to attack her flanks which would give her more time to counter. In addition, she had the range advantage. Once she was in striking distance, she feigned an attack on the legs before lunging for his helmet. She couldn't go for the ceramic plate yet since it was what he was expecting. What she needed to do was stun him with a quick stab to the helm before shattering his plate while he was stunned.

However, her plan went out the window when Lich punched Pyrrha's sword arm and used his dagger to twist Pyrrha's sword away from her grasp while she was trying to recover from the pain. Immediately, Pyrrha pulled back.

Pyrrha could simply feel the disappointment radiating from Lich. He tossed Pyrrha her sword while looking down at her. "Seriously, you just made like the noobiest error that a shield/sword user could make. When you strike with that sword, your shield should also move with your sword arm to prevent counter attacks like that. What type of fucking instructor did you have?"

The rest of the fight was completely fruitless since Pyrrha could not get a single hit on Lich. Even if he wasn't using his semblance, he was too quick on his feet and he hit like an Ursa. In addition, he kept berating her for fighting like an actor. Halfway through the fight, Pyrrha could tell that he was just about done with this fight as he simply started toying with her by throwing away the dagger and attacking with his bare hands as he started ranting about how real-life fighting isn't remotely close to the fighting shown in something called anime which Pyrrha had no idea about. He even went as far as asking if she really was at the top of the class causing her to lose her anger as she charged forward which resulted in a punishment of a kick to the face.

The spar finally ended when Pyrrha's aura broke under Lich's onslaught of rapid punches to her face after he pinned her down under him and began wailing on her. He got off of her and silently watched her drag her feet underneath her, pick up her weapons, and got into a fighting stance once more.

"You're done. I felt your aura break."

"I'm not done yet. I can still fight."

"I applaud your tenacity, but it seems that your society has a long way to go in fighting actual intelligent human beings. All those unnecessary moves and stuff may have worked on Grimm, but it won't work on other humans. Well, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. You guys only had like what… One great war, and everybody is taught to fight like that? Hunters were probably used as propaganda material with all those flashy moves you are showing. Jeez. Give it up. You won't win against me."

"I can still fight!" Pyrrha could feel tears of humiliation run down her face. She has trained from dawn to dusk in an attempt to be the best huntress she could possibly be. Even before she met Lich, she knew of how dangerous her path would be, and she knew of the importance of having strength to back up her beliefs. And yet… Here was this aura-less person who was not using any spells beating her, a prodigy and the top of her class, bare-handed. It was humiliation to the ultimate level, and it spat on all her effort.

Lich saw the determination in her teary eyes and decided to oblige her request. He charged forward. She tried to retaliate by blocking on of his punches towards her sword arm, but it was merely a feint as he pulled back his arm, stomped on Pyrrha's foot, and while she was flinching from the pain running up her leg, she saw a fist aimed at her face before everything went dark.

When Pyrrha woke up, she woke up on the same bed that she always woke up on. The bed of moss. She was still in her armor as well, and her entire body was sore. Particularly her face. Pyrrha began reviewing the spar in her head, and she sighed in defeat at how quickly she lost. She saw Lich begin to rise from his chair as he walked over to her.

"I realize that I may have said some really hurtful stuff to you yesterday. I just wanted to apolo…" Lich was cut short when Pyrrha grabbed Lich's hand, bowed her head, and yelled, "Teach me."

"Hah?"

"Lich. Do you believe in destiny?"

"Pgasdfh. Uh."

"Well, somebody once told me that destiny wasn't a predetermined fate, but some sort of final goal or something you work towards your entire life. I think that is what destiny is. So, I have made it my destiny to be the best huntress I could possibly be. A hero to the people. I think I finally know why I ended up in this cavern. Recently, I felt that I have met this sort of wall. No matter how much harder I trained, I couldn't get much stronger. However, now that I met you. I think I was sent here so that I could meet you so that you could help me with my destiny. So, please teach me everything that you know."

"Uhh… Pyrrha. Everything I have is based off of some stuff from my home-world plus a bunch of self-learning through trial and error. I won't be able to teach you about training your body to be as strong or as fast as me. That is like impossible since well I am kinda unique. Also, I would only be able to teach you some techniques and flaws in your fighting style. Anything else would be more of me throwing you into tough situations for you to fight out and learn for yourself. I won't even be able to teach you much about aura control since I don't have it myself. Yes, I can help you with interpreting it from a different viewpoints or help you with some experiments, but nothing more. I am not going to be the teacher you think me to be."

"I don't care. Please help me with my destiny."

"Sigh. Fine. Fine. We'll start after I get all your equipment repaired. I sort of went a bit overboard yesterday. I wanted to apologize about that."

"Forgiven. Just please teach me."

"Okay. Sheesh. I already agreed. I guess we will have to delay the starting point of our journey. I should be able to delay it to about maybe 2 more months at the maximum before we have to go or the food will start rotting. I hope that is enough time to break your bad habits cause sheesh there were a lot. Anyway, I wanted to show you something. If I delay it anymore, I might lose my courage at showing it to you, but then it might be considered a breach of trust which isn't a good thing."

Lich began rambling about the importance of trust in a team as he brought out this small strange glowing box with four keys and placed it on the table in front of Pyrrha. Now, she understood what Lich meant by magic being real. The box was literally magic. There was no other explanation for the pressure she was getting from the box and its keys. Obviously, the box had far more presence, but the keys did have some ghostly glow to them.

"What's inside?"

"Something extremely important to me. In fact, you could say that this box is connected to me and my powers. In fact, I even think this box is sentient because of how much it changes without permission." Lich took this time to glare at the box as his hands tightened around it.

"What do you mean?"

"This box was supposed to be a simple titanium box with four locks until it turned magical. Then, it started changing and placing restrictions on me as well. For example, these keys don't work anymore. I made the damn box and the keys, and I made damn sure that they work. At first, for the first fucking 29 years, they worked just fine, but then they stopped working." To illustrate his frustration, Lich rammed in one of the keys and began jiggling it around. The key did not even move an inch. Sighing, he took it back around and began twirling the key around his hand.

"Not only that, this box and the keys used to have teleportation abilities! If I get too far, they will just warp to me. The keys still do, but not the box anymore! Instead, I can't go more than a kilometer away from the damn box without moving it with me!" Pyrrha looked at Lich, obviously not believing him.

"I heard that liars get their pants set on fire."

"No! It is true! I seriously can't go more than a km away from this box! I can prove it to you." Lich quickly ran out before Pyrrha could say anything else. She found Lich at far end of the wall. How he got over there so quickly without him having any aura as he has claimed confused her. Pyrrha activated her aura and sprinted over to when Lich was.

"Okay. I'll place the box right here. Now, see that tunnel over there. You're not going crazy, my minions made them while we were bathing. We needed more room so we started connecting the next door rooms. I didn't do it before since more room means more places to defend, but we are leaving so… Before you say anything about digging our way up there, the caverns don't like it when we dig too far. Sure we can dig a little bit like this, but if we dig too much… earthquakes happen." Lich began sprinting towards the newly made tunnels at speeds that even Pyrrha had difficulty keeping up with even with her aura activated. They passed numerous rooms that were simply crammed with undead little corpses slaving away at gathering dust, minerals, or mushrooms. Until suddenly, Lich abruptly stopped with Pyrrha running straight into him. The plate mail armor did not cushion the impact at all.

"That is as far as I can go without that box." Pyrrha tried pushing Lich forward; however, something surprising occurred. Some type of force was preventing Lich from moving forward. It was definitely not Lich since she would feel the resistance from the foot; however, this was a force coming from the center of his body.

Then, Lich had this fantastic idea to make this into a training exercise for Pyrrha with her goal being her trying to get him through the 1 km line. Pyrrha tried numerous ways to get Lich to go even one more step further even going as far as lifting him up and throwing him. He wasn't that heavy surprisingly. They all ended in failure. He even surprised Pyrrha by ordering one of his minions to start moving his box the other direction, and he laid down. Pyrrha assumed the box was being moved when Lich was quite literally dragged by an unseen force in the assumed direction the box was being carried. Pyrrha could only watch this in shock as she placed a hand on her forehead and sighed. She felt lightheaded after all the energy she spent trying to prove Lich wrong. She thought it was him cheating by him using spells at first, but she quickly dismissed it since there was a certain atmosphere that could be felt when Lich used his spells.

"Okay. So. Let me catch my breath. Whew. So, you weren't lying when you said you couldn't go any further."

"Nope. Let's go back."

"Can't we rest a bit more?"

"Not here." Lich ignored Pyrrha's cries of surprise and protest as he picked her up like a sack of potatoes and began dashing towards the box once more, scaring Pyrrha into silence with how fast he was going. Very few people could achieve the speeds at which Lich was going, and the few people who could go that fast was because of their semblance. It was almost as if Lich was flying towards the box.

They quickly reached their starting point as Lich gently let Pyrrha down to let her retch in peace. The metal jabbing into her stomach did not help with the speed at which they were going. Lich patiently waited by sitting on the rock next to the small box. Out of the corner of Pyrrha's eye, she could see him chucking the keys at random directions to see them returning to him after some time. After one last heave, Pyrrha smoothed out her clothes and drank from the water a little undead spider brought to her.

"Okay. Anything else I need to know about the box?"

"Other than how it can change by itself, how the box and I are connected, and how it is also really precious to me? Nothing that comes to my mind really. Oh, wait. It is like anti-Grimm. Seriously, if they so much as touch this, they start dissolving. That said, I don't use these things as weapons because if it suddenly changes characteristics while I am chucking this thing at the Grimm… I don't want to think about it."

"Can I touch it?"

"Sure."

Lich handed the box and the keys to Pyrrha. She noticed that he got a bit tense when she started shaking it, but other than that there were no words of protest from him as she fiddled with it. However, it wasn't until Pyrrha took one of the keys and plugged it in to one of the locks that things turned interesting. She turned the key expecting it to fail, but it turned with a corresponding click. Lich and Pyrrha both froze as the box suddenly began glowing once more and this time some sort of writing appeared on the box. Pyrrha quickly puts down the box, puts her hands in the air, and steps back.

"You told me that the keys don't work."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello. Thank you to everyone who actually made it this far with my story. I do hope you did enjoy it. I will also do the obligatory disclaimer that I do not own RWBY, and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. Other than that, enjoy this chapter as well. Also, thank you to anyone who took the time to write a review.**

After the initial surprise, the next was a flurry of tests to determine what changed. Lich was still restricted to a 1km distance from the box, and the keys retained their abilities to come back to Lich unless it was Pyrrha holding the key. If ownership of the keys were given to Pyrrha, the keys would not come back. One thing that made Lich sigh in relief was that Pyrrha was only able to unlock one lock. She could not unlock anymore if she already used a key. Even so, Lich was still annoyed that he himself could not open the box which meant that his heart was still out of his reach. In addition, the keys have changed color. One was fiery red, the other a thundering white, the third an empty black, the last was a deathly pale. Other than that, there was not much difference. As for the writing on the box, it was written in Pyrrha's language which she helpfully translated for him. It was unnerving, to say the least, and he did not like what it implicated.

 _Out from the dust came air. Conquest shall be as swift as wind it exclaimed._

 _Out from the dust came fire. With a fiery heart, war shall be waged it exclaimed._

 _Out from the dust came water. Hunger cannot be quenched only sated it exclaimed._

 _Out from the dust came earth. In the end, all shall return to darkness it exclaimed._

 _We four shall lay judgment and return to the dust from whence we came._

Lich has come to the conclusion that he officially hates this box. It seems that he may have underestimated the seriousness of his own situation. It seems that Lich is no mere undead skeleton if the wording on the box was to be believed. It was pretty ominous. He put his hands on his helmet and groaned. He needed to organize his thoughts. During times like this, Lich used writing as his method of keeping sane. In fact, he even initiated conversations at times to stave off loneliness. With that, he walked over to the wall, picked up chalk that one of his minions brought and began writing whatever came to his mind.

Pyrrha, on the other hand, was rereading the text trying to make sense of what it was saying. She noticed Lich standing up and writing on the wall as well as talking to it; however, she thought nothing of it. Although concerning, she could understand that nobody could go through decades of isolation and come out completely sane. Pyrrha did some more tinkering with the box, but it yielded no further information or change. Sighing, she put it back down and spectated Lich writing like a mad-man. Seeing that he won't be done anytime soon, she decided to take this time to read up on the type of enemies she might face.

It wasn't until Lich covered a section of the wall top to bottom with text that he stopped and began twirling the chalk around his armored fingers. He calmed down, but he wasn't feeling much better. His situation was quite severe no matter how one looked at it. It seemed that he wasn't just a nobody in this fantasy world which was pissing him off quite a bit. However, what role did he have? Perhaps he was some sort of guardian to this place. Someone who watched over the dead. It explains his current situation. Or he could even be some sort of reaper? Or perhaps he was simply overthinking things, and he was simply a nobody. There were too many guesses and not enough evidence.

Now to think about the box. Something that he was uncomfortable with. He never gave too much of a thought to the box because it was unnerving to him. Unnerving how it could change, worried that it may one day suddenly betrayed him. In fact, as long as it did its job in protecting his heart, he never tried to pry open its secrets. Now, it seems that he may have to change tactics.

What purpose did the box serve? Lich began thinking about his time before and after the box. Now that he thought about it, after he created the box, his control over magic was much easier and more fluid. But how does shutting a heart inside a box do anything? What significance does it have? The only reason why he created the box in the first place was to protect his heart because his body no longer could protect it, and he wanted extra security for the fragile organ. Perhaps his heart recognized the boxes purpose and reinforced itself with magic. He could understand how it could happen. After all, the heart had a lot of cultural significance with some even believing that the heart housed one's soul. Or maybe when he put his heart in the box some sorts of conditions were met, and the chest became something like a phylactery. He was well aware of why he jokingly named himself Lich.

He began thinking of all the times the box changed its characteristics. Every time it changed there was a shine of light. What could have triggered the change? The first was Lich being unable to open the box anymore. Suddenly, it clicked in Lich's mind. During that time, Lich was contemplating suicide. Being threatened, did the heart subconsciously lock itself to prevent Lich from killing himself? It did make sense. However, what about its loss of teleporting powers? Now that he thought about it, there was that one time that the box teleported to Lich at a very unfortunate time, and a Grimm managed to run off with it. He later found the box surrounded by a puddle of black goo… Perhaps that was when it lost its teleportation powers and replaced it with the Grimm murdering ability.

Finally, the most recent change. It was when Pyrrha touched it. Hmmm. Why? He could understand the keys losing their teleportation. It sort of made sense as Lich was aware of myths regarding magic and 'ownership'. He could see how the keys would be more attracted to the hands of a living person… But the writing and everything else? Suddenly, Lich froze, picked up the box, and bashed it onto the wall. He noticed an aura field went up around the box as it slid down the wall. He suddenly remembered what Pyrrha said about aura, "Living creatures have an aura." Did Pyrrha accidentally unlock his aura? Technically, his heart was still alive…

Perhaps. He needed to confirm a couple of things with Pyrrha first. Knowledge of Remnant's myths would be very helpful at the moment as well as what occurred when someone unlocked aura. He found Pyrrha, reading through his 'encyclopedia of things that can kill you'. After listening to Pyrrha, the method of unlocking the aura did make sense a bit. As for the myths, they weren't helpful. He did peek some interest at the relics and the four maidens, but nothing really fit his situation. Unless he could fancy himself the wizard minus the four maidens.

Four. Hmm. What a curious number. Anyhow, after a quite exciting day of discovery and annoyances, it seemed that the excitement was too much for Pyrrha as she decided to cash in and plopped onto the moss bed and went to bed. While Pyrrha was sleeping, Lich began planning out how he could help out Pyrrha.

 **Day 1:**

"Pyrrha! You alright? You've been in there for like 2 hours."

Lich heard groaning from inside the lavatory. "Yeah. I'm alright."

"Are you constipated?" He heard some sort of rattling inside before a scream answered him. "You don't ask a girl if she is constipated, Lich!"

Obviously, a diet consisting of only fish and mushrooms weren't going to be kind to Pyrrha's living body who grew up on a lot more wholesome diet. Later, he decided to risk feeding fruits and roots from the DF to Pyrrha. She was already feeding on the fish and mushrooms now that he thought about it. There were no noticeable effects, and her digestive issues were a lot less severe.

 **Day 2:**

Lich was glad that child protective services did not exist in this cavern. He was pretty sure that what he was doing would count as child abuse… He was thinking this as Pyrrha was hopping around in one foot because her stance was too wide, resulting in Lich taking advantage of it by smashing his own foot on to her foot.

His thoughts returned to whether he was going too far when he decided to teach Pyrrha of the dangers of doing an unnecessary flashy jump attack as he placed a pole at just the right angle so that the pole hit her right in the groin on her way down. Turns out that girls are just as vulnerable as boys.

He apologized, and she never jumped as haphazardly again.

 **Day 7:**

Lich repaired the water clock.

 **Day 12:**

Lich didn't know that a fish Grimm had spawned in the pool that Pyrrha trained in order to work on her endurance. She almost drowned to death. Later, he always made sure to thoroughly electrocute the water before swimming exercises.

 **Day 31:**

It turns out that Lich's magic doesn't work very well on people who were alive. They had a tendency to dissipate when it neared the person. He could still do weak attacks like bursts of wind or mounds of earth for tripping, but nothing fatal could be done. However, his dark magic could still affect Pyrrha, but he didn't use it because it was practically cheating with how quickly it could deplete Pyrrha's aura. In addition, Pyrrha suffered from nightmares after being in prolonged contact with his dark magic so he decided never to use it in spars again.

 **Day 33:**

Lich was having an excellent time watching Pyrrha run from her life from numerous Grimm in order to teach her the dangers of fighting multiple opponents at once. Considering how Pyrrha was crying and pleading to Lich to help her out, it seemed to be working. At attracting more Grimm. He'll just hang back in the shadows for a bit longer before jumping in and teaching her how to calm down and use her terrain to the advantage. Until then, he will just enjoy the show. Wow. Who knew he had such a sadistic streak?

 **Day 44:**

With Pyrrha's help, he finally managed to get a good idea on how Dust worked. Working grenade models were created for each type. Sadly, the other uses of Dust was restricted due to lack of equipment. So guns were still out of the picture.

 **Day 50:**

As the day for departure was getting closer, Lich decided to make a little compartment for his box. He would need to carry around the box to get anywhere so he made this contraption that would suspend the box inside his armor. He was mainly empty space so it was possible to fit it in. Sadly, when Pyrrha saw him take out the box from nowhere, she told a story of drug dealers who hid drugs up there butt. Her passive aggressiveness was too strong.

 **Day 60:**

"Alright, last day of training. Tomorrow, we are leaving. For this last spar, go all out. You win if you break the plate, and I win if you run out of aura."

"Seriously? All out?"

"All out. Except for the dark magic of course."

Pyrrha shivered at the memory of being close to manipulated dark spells. The way it seemed to consume the light and color of its surroundings was quite scary. Every time it made contact with her aura, she could just feel it chewing away at her soul. She quickly shook out the feeling though. She had a spar to win.

Pyrrha picked up her short sword/ javelin, she finally managed to create a weapon that could change forms. It took a while; however, with Lich's magic, she could finally create one. She hasn't named it yet. She was about to; however, Lich and Pyrrha got into an argument about naming weapons. Eventually, Lich managed to convince her not to name her weapon yet because it was most likely going to break or get lost in the journey upward. Not getting too attached to a weapon would be ideal. After that, she put on her shield and some rope with weights on them.

Since Lich was unable to harm Pyrrha with his magic, he was forced to use a weapon against her. When he skipped over the mace and chain, she breathed a sigh of relief. That was a nightmare to spar against. In order to teach her better ways of deflecting attacks, he used the ball and chain flail to prove his points. In the end, Pyrrha almost gave up on deflecting and more on evasive actions. The pain he could inflict with that weapon was extremely harrowing especially with his strength. That weapon probably weighed a ton, and he was swinging it around as if it was a ball of yarn. How someone as skinny as him could be so strong she had no idea. She still remembered the time he tricked her into coming too close, allowing him to hook the chain on the ridge of her shield, resulting in the ball smashing into her back. If it wasn't for her aura, she'd be paralyzed waist down.

In the end, he chose a longsword and stood at the end of the ring in an _Alber_ stance. That stance was deceptive. It looked as if he was filled with openings; however, he was actually in a position to quickly counter any unwary opponents. Due to Lich's insane reactions times and speed, his counters were something to fear. It was precisely due to his counters that Pyrrha could not get too close to Lich. She just couldn't match him. Heck, very few _professional_ huntsmen could probably match him in regards to speed. Pyrrha herself had improved in her speed, but she was still unable to keep up with him.

As Pyrrha stood at her ready position with her shield raised. Cautiously watching Lich, she began to think how unfairly strong Lich was. He never flinched, rarely got stunned, shake off hits to the head as if they never happened, take stab wounds through his hands, had his insane speed and reaction times, hit like a truck, and had his annoying bag of magic tricks. However, he wasn't without his weaknesses.

Quickly, she switched her weapon's form to a javelin and charged forward because she couldn't afford to let Lich go on the offensive, and she didn't want to get in too close to Lich because the hilt hurts a lot. On the other hand, Lich didn't like to go on the offensive until after Pyrrha was a bit tired. He was cautious that way. After all, she did have the defensive advantage with the shield, and who knew of any crazy ideas that Pyrrha had cooked up. She did win one time by blowing up a grenade at point blank range and ended the spar in a draw because Lich wasn't able to stop a fragment from making a tiny chip in the otherwise intact plate. She got chewed out for it later so she couldn't use that tactic again. If Pyrrha refused to move through, Lich would be the one to attack first and that would be bad for Pyrrha's stamina.

With the javelin, she should be able to achieve a longer reach than the longsword. This meant that she didn't have to get into the reach of the longsword. She stopped just shy of the longsword reach and began furiously sending stabs in Lich's directions. He merely began blocking every swipe as if it was nothing; however, Pyrrha didn't give Lich the opportunity get closer, but holding back Lich like this was incredibly tiring so Pyrrha was forced to disengage and jump back.

Lich merely lets Pyrrha jump back and went back into his _Alber_ guard. Immediately, Pyrrha understood what game Lich wanted to play. For some reason, Lich just doesn't get tired which meant that he would win any battles of attrition. This meant that Lich could simply toy with Pyrrha until she was too tired for his later offensive. She also knew that Lich wouldn't give Pyrrha time to rest. She needed to change tactics. Secretly behind the shield, she tied the rope to the end of the javelin.

She did not have the ability to match him blow for blow. If she let him go on the offensive, it would most likely end in a loss for Pyrrha. Since he was in the _Alber_ guard, she already had a good idea of the types of counters he would dish out. Because she couldn't match his speed, Pyrrha was forced to instead predict and restrict the types of moves he could dish out. For example, she intentionally put her shield a bit lower than usual to signal to Lich that she was ready to block any attempted rising cuts from his sword. As she got within striking range, she forced Lich to step back to switch guards. She kept pursuing and proceeded to try to stab Lich in one of the legs after a small sideway twirl of her javelin. Her shield followed her attacking arm, shielding it from counters and eyesight.

He responded with a quick sidestep onto her shield side and bashed down with the hilt. She deflected the blunt attack and as it was sliding across her shield, she transformed her javelin back into a short sword and made a swipe to cut his plate in half. Realizing Pyrrha's intentions, he tried to grab Pyrrha's blade; however, Pyrrha already predicted this counter. As soon as she felt resistance on her blade, Lich's hilt had already slid off her shield allowing her to go for her shield bash. At the distance Pyrrha was in, she was in optimal position for such an attack, and it would allow her to take advantage of one of Lich's key weaknesses. Lich was very light. It felt as if he was merely skin and bones (or as Lich once joked, 'armor and bones'). This allowed Pyrrha to easily win any momentum battles so Pyrrha could easily throw Lich off balance or send him flying. In this instance, Lich ended up a few feet into the air, putting him in a dangerous position.

When someone was in the air, they were unable to dodge or attack with a lot of force unless they either used dust or magic. Lich had access to magic so he could at the very least cast a gust of wind that would send him backward giving him some breathing room. Sadly, Pyrrha had already taken advantage of another weak point of Lich. His sense of touch was almost non-existent. She remembered the time scalding hot water poured on him, and he didn't even flinch. There was a time when he got caught in a spider web, and it took forever for him to realize that the reason why he wasn't moving as smoothly was that there was a string digging into one of his joints. It wasn't only his sense of touch. His sense of smell was also non-existent as well, but she couldn't take advantage of that in this situation. Anyways, his weak sense of touch already played into Pyrrha's favor.

When Pyrrha first made the attack of the javelin, she did the unnecessary twirl in order to entangle one of his foot with the rope. She already learned the dangers of unnecessary flashy moves from Lich's 'hell' week. He thoroughly beat into her the importance of using only necessary moves. After the successful attempt with the seemingly useless twirl, she attacked the other leg to distract Lich from the fact that one of his legs was tied to a rope. If he could still feel, he would have probably felt the vibrations from his armor as the rope went around his leg; however, he couldn't. In addition, Pyrrha's lower position allowed her to use her shield to hide the fact that she had attached a rope to one of his legs.

Lich realized too late that one of his foot had a rope attached to it. His line of sight followed the rope down to see Pyrrha holding on to the rope. If Pyrrha could see under his helmet, she was positive that his eyes would be wide-open.

"Oh, shi…" Lich didn't manage to finish his words as she quickly pulled on the string to send him crashing down onto the ground. It didn't take much effort because as previously mentioned, Lich wasn't that heavy. He weighed less than Pyrrha for crying out loud, and she was a 12-year-old girl! She then proceeded to have fun twirling Lich around and bashing him against whatever was available such as the training dummies, rocks, walls, and the floor. Lich was occupied trying to protect the massive plate on his chest, and he lost his grip on the longsword after the first collision with the floor. Pyrrha was about to send him crashing into the floor once more, but she suddenly lost her balance, forcing her to let go of the rope lest she falls down. She saw that the floor suddenly had a small bump that wasn't there before.

Lich was sent tumbling, but he quickly recovered with a roll and made a mad dash for his longsword. Pyrrha couldn't have that happening. Since Lich was now weaponless, it was Pyrrha with the longer reach with the short sword. Intercepting Lich, Pyrrha forced him away from his weapon with slashes and lunges aimed at his chest. She made sure to keep her blade away from the reach of his hands. Lich tried to disengage multiple times; however, Pyrrha kept pushing him out of balance with her shield every time he tried to gain some distance. This stalemate continued until Lich took advantage of a head swipe from Pyrrha's blade to plop down onto his back, kick Pyrrha's leg from underneath her, and began rolling away to his sword with the use of his magic. By this time, Pyrrha was beginning to tire out. She needed to end this quickly.

She jumped toward Lich in an attempt to cut him off from reaching his sword, but it was too late. He quickly flipped onto his feet and began attacking Pyrrha with vengeance. Lich refused to let Pyrrha disengage with rapid slashes that Pyrrha had a very difficult time defending against, and he quickly closed any distance she tried to create. In addition, due to the close proximity, Lich had switched to using a technique that Pyrrha had never seen before she met him. It never existed in Remnant because it was quite an interesting technique, to say the least. He called it the half sword technique in which he actually grabbed the blade of the sword for better control of the sword and began attacking her with the hilt and the tip of the blade.

Eventually, Pyrrha began to grow tired allowing Lich to start whittling down Pyrrha's aura. Lich ended it with a brutal finish. He smacked her sword away and quickly hooked the hilt of his sword to the top rim of her shield pulling it down which allowed him to bash the sword onto Pyrrha's face two times. While she was winded from the attack, he went in for a headbutt sending Pyrrha into the ground and kicked Pyrrha's shield away. Afterward, he quickly depleted the rest of Pyrrha's aura by continuously kicking and stomping on her not giving her the chance to get up or roll away due to the speed of his attacks.

"Why are you so brutal?" Pyrrha coughed out and began nursing her body. His stomps were even able to go through her armor so her entire body hurt. She began groaning and rolling on the ground. Lich simply waved to the rest of his minions to bring them some water and clean up the mess.

"Real life is brutal. When your opponent is down, finish it." He replied with zero fucks given to Pyrrha rolling on the floor in pain. This wasn't the worst she had gone through, and her aura prevented or healed up the majority of her injuries. He remembered the time when Pyrrha got swarmed by numerous centipedes, and she was bitten everywhere since they even got under her armor. She almost choked to death as well because they tried to go into her nose and mouth. That was a scary moment, and Lich was forced to blast the entire room with a massive AOE fire spell, resulting in Pyrrha getting massive burns. He ended up freezing an entire underground lake to treat her burns. Thank whatever is out there that aura existed or else Pyrrha would be dead by now.

"You need to work on sympathy Lich. Girls don't like that." Lich stared down at Pyrrha.

"You are the last person to be giving out any romantic advice whatsoever. Anyway, you did excellently. The trick with the ropes was an excellent analysis of my weaknesses." Lich helped Pyrrha up after she was done groaning.

"A pity it didn't work."

"Don't take it too bad. You are looking at someone who has been fighting for a long period of time. The fact that you pushed me that far is really good. Besides, you haven't unlocked your semblance yet. With how much you improved without using any semblance, think of how much stronger you would be with it. You might be called the 'invincible girl'."

"Haha. Very funny. Just rub it in." Lich merely shook his head as he reassured Pyrrha that he wasn't joking. After a bit more joking around, a serious atmosphere fell over the two.

"Are you ready tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I'm ready to go home."

Lich crouched down and gripped Pyrrha's shoulders. "I'm going to get you home. Don't worry. Then, you can go on those tournaments and kick everybody's asses."

Pyrrha merely snorted. "Lich. If there was anyone near my age who could fight like you, I would seriously question this world on the definition of fairness. You don't even sleep or eat. You are like the perfect hunter!"

"Which isn't necessarily a good thing you know."

Pyrrha winced as she brought up a sensitive topic for Lich. "Yeah. Sorry…"

"No problem. At least we envy each other." The two began sadly chuckling. Lich gave a small push to Pyrrha towards the main house.

"You should wash up and go to sleep. We'll begin as soon as the water clock finishes its revolution. Yomama43 and Woodyablowme should have warmed up a tub of water for you."

"I still don't know how to tell everybody apart."

"When you are around these guys for like two centuries, you begin to notice some differences. Heck, even I had a hard first time. I think I had to rename everybody like 30 times cause I couldn't remember their names at first. Pray that you don't ever learn how to tell everybody apart because that's not a good sign." Lich made a small wave to Pyrrha as he went to go make some final preparation. Once Pyrrha did one last final check of her stuff, she laid down on her mossy bed and fell asleep.

Pyrrha was woken up by the gonging of the water clock. Once the water clock made its revolution, it would release a hammer that would begin repeatedly hitting a giant metal bell. It was Lich and Pyrrha's way of measuring time in this sunless cave. It was time to start the journey. After a key wash of her mouth and some breakfast, she grabbed her pack, put on her armor, and met Lich at the entrance of the cavern room.

He looked absolutely the same the two months that she had lived with him: the same old plate mail armor. In fact, it was now hard to imagine what Lich without his armor because she has never seen him take it off. She realized that Lich was also looking at her in the same way.

"When I first met you, you were kinda tan. Now, you look very pale." Pyrrha merely shrugged.

"I'll probably get it back when we go back up."

"Well, I heard that tans aren't good for you. Don't know if I am wrong though."

"I think I heard something similar as well."

With that, the duo left the cave rooms, and Lich paused to take one last look at the empty room. He has already sent all of his skeleton minions ahead so the room was completely bare minus the buildings. It felt weird leaving a room that he has used as a base for over three centuries if his inner clock could be trusted. Pyrrha patiently waited for Lich to peel himself away. When he finally did, he moved onwards never looking back.

With Pyrrha far faster, stronger, and smarter than before, they began making quick progress through the caves. Pyrrha was already familiar with many of the Grimm that appeared on the current floor so she could make quick work of them. However, she still struggled with the larger Grimm which is where Lich came into play. Since Pyrrha and Lich had worked on their teamwork and knew how each of them fought, Lich was now able to cast much stronger and bigger spells without Pyrrha getting in the way. As a result, the massive Death Stalker in front of them was quickly taken care of. Pyrrha quickly disengaged when she heard the familiar crackling noises from behind and rolled out the way and behind a rock as electricity began arching everywhere. All that was left of the Death Stalker was a smoking pile of goo.

It was about 24 hours later that Pyrrha herself came to a similar sentimental stop as Lich had earlier. They were in a tunnel with two signs in front of them. The signs read 'danger' and 'tread carefully'. The reason being that the cave tended to open up a lot more afterward resulting in much bigger and dangerous Grimm to begin appearing with greater frequency. In addition, the cave system was also a bit unstable past this point so traps like pitfalls and quakes began appearing at greater frequency after this point. As a result, Pyrrha never did go past these two signs. It would be the farthest she has ever gotten in the two months with Lich.

Pyrrha felt a hand around her shoulders and a small nod from Lich. With a deep breath, Pyrrha took a step forward. At long last, she began her journey back home. Back to Remnant.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello! First, thank you to anyone who took the time to post a review. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.**

"Pyrrha. Down!" Without question, Pyrrha threw herself into the floor as a massive wave of fire blasted over her incinerating many of the Grimm that was chasing the two, primarily Pyrrha. As a result, Pyrrha found herself being the bait in many cases including their current predicament as she lured Grimm into murder traps such as thinner hallways that make it easier for Lich to bombard with magic or luring Grimm into certain pitfalls.

Using this method, the two fighters were able to pass the first part of their journey quite efficiently. Currently, they were on the fourth day of the current floor. It was supposed to be an easy part of the journey. A calm before the storm. The fourth part of the cavern was marked by extreme instability with parts of the caves changing constantly due to the presence of magma. For example, a section of the cave wall could suddenly collapse, and Grimm that were in the other room could start swarming through the collapsed wall in an instant. However, Lich had a couple tricks up his sleeve due to his undead minions so they were able to either trigger the death traps early or scout out safer pathways.

Things were going smoothly until they reached a fork in the caverns. One of them lead to a pathway with magma flowing everywhere, and the other had some sort of thin mineral floor with screamer bat Grimm resting underneath the transparent floor. If one of them fell through the floor, it would wake up the bats underneath them resulting in the screamer bats alerting all the nearest Grimm of their whereabouts. Lich and Pyrrha took one look at the room with the magma and decided that the bat Grimm was the better option. Lich tested the weight, and it held so they continued on their path. They made sure to stick to the walls though. It was going well, but Lich and Pyrrha forgot something very important. Pyrrha was heavier than Lich, and Lich was the one leading the way.

As a result, it was inevitable that one part of the floor was not as strong as Lich thought which resulted in Pyrrha's foot going through the floor hitting a bat Grimm waking it. Thankfully, the bat Grimms were not strong enough to bash through the mineral floor, but their screams echoed throughout the hallway and the marching sounds of thousands of Grimm answered their signal.

Resulting in the duo's current predicament. The burning gap from Lich's fire spell was quickly filled up as the Grimm horde continued to trample each other as they tried to rush at Pyrrha through the narrow tunnel that Pyrrha ran down. She quickly began following Lich through the adjacent tunnels as he tried to further slow down the Grimm by piling his undead minions to create makeshift walls that weren't particularly effective. It did provide precious seconds for the two partners to stay ahead of the horde of Grimm following them… until they were forced to take a bad turn due to the Grimm converging on them and into a dead end. Cursing, Lich immediately took out his longsword and began engaging the Grimm in close combat. Thankfully, the entrance to the room only allowed Grimm to enter one at a time preventing them from simply swarming Lich.

"Lich! What do we do?" Pyrrha stared with wide eyes at Lich desperately trying to hold off a massive centipede Grimm that managed to squeeze through the dissolving bodies of Grimm. Other Grimms were desperately trying and failing to get past the centipede Grimm and charge into the room. The larger Grimms were trying to widen the cavern entrance, and the walls began cracking under the repetitive pounding of the numerous Grimm.

"Start widening that hole up there. It should lead to another room. Make it bigger for us to crawl through!" Pyrrha sheathed her sword and began using her shield to make the hole in the wall bigger. However, progress was painfully slow, and she began to doubt if she would be able to dig faster than the multiple gigantic Grimms who were making excellent progress at breaking down the walls and gradually making new entrances into the room which were desperately clogged by Lich's remaining skeletal minions.

"I can't dig fast enough! Can't you use your magic?" Lich's answer was the reallocation of some of his skeletal minions from their position as barricades and towards helping Pyrrha widening a hole to the adjacent room. Progress sped up, but it was going to be cutting it close.

"I can't use any magic right now! I overloaded it!" Pyrrha's eyes widened even further at Lich's response, and she couldn't help but yell, "Grimm balls!" Pyrrha began digging her way through with even greater vigor.

Normally, Pyrrha wasn't one to cuss. In fact, this may be Pyrrha's first time cussing, and the situation warranted it. Lich's spells were the heavy firepower of the team, and it was only because of his spells that they were able to escape many tense situations. Lich without his spells meant that they were sitting ducks, and there were only two instances in which Lich was unable to use spells at all. Either he ran out of this energy called mana which was similar to how semblances worked in using up aura according to Lich, or he used too much mana in a short period of time. Apparently, if he used up too much mana in a short period of time, he was unable to use mana due to it "mucking up" as he called it. Recovery time was random. Lich couldn't find a pattern to it. Lich's magic made no sense to Pyrrha when he explained it, and even Lich doesn't know how it functions very well. However, Lich was forced to use a lot of spells to keep the massive Grimm horde at bay so it was inevitable that his mana would get 'mucked up' at this time.

Just as massive cracks began appearing at the wall separating the two from the massive Grimm horde, Pyrrha was finally able to breakthrough to the other room. She quickly slid through and yelled at Lich that she broke through. As she began nervously pacing the room waiting for Lich to come through the tunnel she has made, she heard cussing coming from the tunnel as Lich came crawling through as fast as he could. He then grabbed Pyrrha and yelled for her to start running. Without question, she followed Lich as a massive explosion rocked the room they escaped from causing the entire cavern to start shaking. Once the earthquake passed, they continued running until they reached the safe zone that Lich's minions have scouted out two months ago.

Safe zones were places in which Grimm's spawning rate was lower than the others as well as more stable parts of the cavern allowing Lich to create a room in the wall without the cavern collapsing on them. However, Lich was currently on 'cooldown' forcing them to wait next to the wall until he was able to use it once more. With Lich watching their surroundings with a careful gaze, Pyrrha collapsed onto the floor. There were times when Pyrrha wanted Lich's unlimited stamina and now was one of them. Once she calmed her breathing, she asked what the explosion was.

"I used all of our dust grenades." Pyrrha looked at Lich in disbelief.

"All of them?" Lich shrugged his shoulders before stretching his hands up onto this little cleft in which a hole was cleverly hidden. He then proceeded to take out 10 grenades from the hole.

"Now we have 10." Realizing the importance of equipment but lacking the methods of transporting them with any certainty, Lich had his minions spend the last two months stocking the safe points with some equipment. Within the hidden artificially created holes were other necessities such as food and water while they rested up. In this way, Pyrrha and Lich were able to travel light, and any baggage could easily be tossed since they could easily replenish as soon as they got to the next safe point. Lich took out a bottle of water and handed it to Pyrrha which she gladly began gulping down.

"Can you use your spells yet?" Pyrrha took quick glances down the corridors to make sure that the Grimm horde hasn't followed them after the explosion.

"Not yet. Almost though." Lich leaned his back against the wall and slid down with a hand on his chest plate while groaning. From what Lich has told Pyrrha, every time he overloads on mana or uses it all up, his heart hurts. It was why Lich did not sling spells around willy-nilly because it may backfire on him should he really need to use magic.

Pyrrha walked over to her partner and asked if he was alright. It was unsettling to Pyrrha to see Lich in pain especially seeing all the beatings that Lich could take without flinching. All she got in reply was a simple wave and a thumbs up.

They spent the next couple minutes in tense silence until Lich stood up and placed his hands on the wall. Light glowed as a small rumbling occurred, and dust began falling from the ceiling as a door was slowly created. After some time, the door was finished and Lich inspected the empty room to make sure it wasn't going to collapse before entering. Pyrrha quickly grabbed the rest of the equipment from the hole before following Lich inside and closed the door and barricaded it.

In the safety of the enclosed room, the adrenaline completely left Pyrrha as she crouched down and began laughing. Lich ignited a small fire with some type of coal in the designated fireplace lighting up the otherwise dark room as he began warily watching Pyrrha. He hoped that it wasn't because she has lost her sanity.

It took a while, but at last Pyrrha was able to calm down enough to see Lich's nervous stare. "Sorry. It's just that it has been a while since I almost died again. Ever since I started this journey I thought we were going to be experiencing this every single day. The fact that it didn't happen until the supposedly easiest part of our journey is just too hilarious. It really sums up our luck."

Lich merely gave a small nod before he sat down watching the flames dancing on top of the coals. Listening to the clicking of the Grimm that echoed throughout the cavern, Pyrrha sat down next to Lich and began watching the flames.

"Do you think you could do your music thing? The clicking is starting to get on my nerves." Lich shook his head and explained that the noise would be a good indication for any incoming ambush. He didn't want to be distracted by any music so he continued to suppress the air vibrations.

"Instead of music lets just talk about something." Pyrrha shrugged her shoulders and tried to think of a topic to talk about with Lich. Suddenly, she realized that she didn't know a lot about Lich. During her time with him, Lich rarely talked about himself. Either it was Lich merely giving Pyrrha tips on fighting or it was Lich listening to Pyrrha talk about herself when he tried to give her pep talks during depressing times.

"You know. We never really talked about you, and I don't think that's fair. You already know about me so why don't we talk about you this time." Lich turned his helmet to stare at Pyrrha.

"Well, you already know about some stuff about me. I am cursed so I don't eat or drink or sleep. I can fight. I am a good listener according to you. What else is there to know about me?"

"Well. Let's start with something simple. When we get out of here what do you want to do?" Lich laid down as he stared at the flickering shadows at the ceiling.

"You know. I have so many different answers to that question. If you asked me a really long time ago, I would talk about finding a way to go home or going on some sort of quest filled with shenanigans and a harem of beautiful girls at my side. But now… After so many years… I told myself that I would be content with two things. First, I wanted this loneliness to end. I wanted someone to talk with. Someone to send my time with. Anyone would do. So, I want to thank you for ending my centuries of loneliness." Pyrrha blushed at Lich's sincere and honest response.

"You shouldn't exaggerate so much." Lich merely shook his head at Pyrrha's attempt at downplaying her significance.

"I'm not. Humans are social creatures. No man is an island after all. I don't know if I still qualify as a human, but being alone still hurts. It's suffocating especially when you are in a cave with rocks and monsters that want to kill you. Being in that room trying to find things to entertain myself with. Being forced to talk to a wall while I write on it. I began to question my sanity numerous times. You have helped me end that nightmare. So, thank you. I really mean it. You've granted me one of my wishes already."

"You said that there was a second thing you wanted to do." Lich sighed and stared at the little stream of water this time.

"I want to see the sun."

"The sun?"

"Well to be more specific, I want to see a sunrise. You see before I woke up in this place, I lived next to this hiking place with a beautiful sunrise at the end of a trail. Every important day like my birthday, New Years, and other stuff I would go to that place and watch the sun rise. A sun rise is a really soothing sight. Watching that sun go up signaling a whole new day. But now. After being stuck in this underground place for so long I want to see the sun. Not a cheap substitute for the sun that is on the DF, but the real sun. I may not be able to get sunburned or feel the sunrays on my cheek anymore, but I want to just bathe in sunlight once more. Pretty boring isn't it?"

Pyrrha nodded. She thought that Lich would have something far more extravagant in mind for his return to the surface. If it was Pyrrha, she would have far more exciting things in plan.

"Well, that was depressing. Sorry for making the atmosphere even worse, but I'm just going to warn you again that I may not be able to go through the door with you. Although your optimism is quite refreshing and at times infectious, I just want you to know that if I can't get through, I want you to go on without me." Pyrrha glared at Lich.

"No matter how many times you say that, I am going to reply that I will never abandon you. If you can't go through, then I will find a way." Lich couldn't find it in him to refute Pyrrha. He really should, but he simply couldn't. However, if things really came down to it… Lich was already thinking of contingency plans should Pyrrha prove difficult in the last stretch of the journey. Lich couldn't help but chuckle. They weren't even at the DF yet, and he was already thinking about the end of their journey.

Lich began to hear snoring from behind him. It seems that Pyrrha had gone to sleep. Sadly, Lich no longer needed sleep, and he began his long vigil over Pyrrha's vulnerable form watching out for any dangers.

 **10 hours later** :

"Okay. I am pretty sure that this should not be like this. I don't remember about this being here at all."

As the two travelers began the last part of the current floor, they were stopped by a massive web that covered the cavern walls. The last part before arriving at the DF was supposed to be a maze of winding cavern tunnels with the occasional rooms. What greeted their sight was a massive spider webbing that coated the cavern walls. They peered into the darkness, and it was simply webbing after webbing.

"Lich. I don't think this is a good idea."

"There is no other way. We have to go through this. Thankfully, we have the map so we can go through this maze quickly, but this is just… fuck's sake." Lich puts his hands on his helmet and began groaning. It seems that the last part just had to be exponentially harder that it should have been. It seems that some spider Grimm had set up a massive home in the last part of the current floor. Lich looked at his map again to double check if there was truly no other way to get to the passage upward, but it was useless. They had to go through the maze that was now the habitat of spider Grimm. This was going to be an uphill battle.

"Lich. Can't we just burn through this?"

"The air is pretty stale here. I don't want you to suffocate. Also, trying to burn all this stuff would just attract all the spider Grimm here, and I will risk overload again." The two once more stared into the webbed cave tunnel.

"Do you have any minions left?"

"No. They all got destroyed. I sacrificed them all to stop that last Grimm horde. I also don't see any skeletons nearby so I can't make more." They both fell into a deep contemplative silence as they once more stared at the pathway.

It was Lich who broke the silence first. "Fuck it. Standing like this won't do anything. We are going in."

Lich began walking forward, but an iron grip from Pyrrha stopped him from going forward. Lich sighed and turned around. "What? It's not like you have arachnophobia. You killed other spider Grimms like it was nothing."

"That is that and this is completely different. This is like a spider's home turf. You can't be serious about just walking in there. That's stupid!" Pyrrha hissed out her response at Lich.

"Pyrrha. It will be alright. We are just going to go in there. Sneak past the spiders and get to the DF. I promised that I was going to get you back home alive. We are going to get through this maze. We just have to be a bit more careful. We can do it." However, just then, as if the universe wished to mock Lich's attempt at encouraging Pyrrha, a sharp cold breeze came from the maze's entrance. It only served to strengthen Pyrrha's resolve to NOT go into the web covered maze.

Lich sighed as he began brainstorming ways to get Pyrrha to go into the caves with him. This was a new challenge for Lich since he hasn't have had Pyrrha so adamant against doing something. Until now, Pyrrha either followed Lich's orders without question or a little bit of encouragement was enough. Now, it looked as if Pyrrha was close to passing out from fear, and he couldn't blame her. If he wasn't just a skeleton body himself, even he wouldn't go into that cave. As a result, he was left with no choice but to resort to this method.

"Bwak. Bwak. Bwak." Lich put his hands in his armpits and began waving his arms like a chicken. Pyrrha stared daggers at Lich as her fear gradually turned into anger.

"What. Are. You. Doing?" Pyrrha's hands began to clench.

"You're just a chicken. Bwak. Bwak. Scared of a couple of strings and dark tunnels. Bwak. I bet if your friends saw you they would call you Fearha Flee-kos." Pyrrha's jaw clenched at the Lich's bad attempt at insulting her.

"You look dumb acting like that. You're supposed to be older than 60. Act your age." However, Lich was undaunted.

"Better than standing here, pissing your pants in fear. Look at that puddle of pee just pooling around your feet." Pyrrha looked down and snapped her head back up in anger.

"I'm not peeing myself!"

"You are going to. You're so scared of the maze that you're just standing there going to pee yourself. If I'm wrong then go in there." Pyrrha released an angry and embarrassed sigh.

"You are acting like a fool. No, stop it. It's not working." However, Lich continued to do the clucking noises as he got closer to the wall. Realizing that it has no effect on Pyrrha, he stopped and straightened up.

"Well, I just acted like a dumbass for nothing."

"You think?"

A stare off continued between Pyrrha and Lich until Lich punched the wall and activated one of his earth spells. Immediately, the cavern began shaking as the ceiling began breaking apart and pieces began falling down around the two. Pyrrha's face became horrified as she realized what Lich was doing.

"Chop. Chop. Let's go. Or else we are going to get crushed to death." Lich playfully said. Pyrrha's was too stunned by Lich's action to give a proper retort, and he took advantage of Pyrrha's inability to move by grabbing her by the hand and dragging her into the maze as the tunnel behind them began collapsing trapping them in the spider-infested maze. Realizing what he did, Pyrrha shook her hand out of Lich's grasp and pushed him.

"What were you thinking?!"

"Well, it worked. I'm sorry that I had to resort to extreme measures like that, but things were getting really awkward, and I wanted to hurry things up." Pyrrha could only slap her hand on her face. This shouldn't really surprise Pyrrha. This wasn't the first time he did something stupid like this. She still remembered the time when he wanted to teach her how to fight multiple opponents. His excuse for ditching her while she was on the run was absolutely horrendous, and Pyrrha didn't talk with him for a whole day until Lich caved and apologized.

However, in this case, Pyrrha had to begrudgingly admit that Lich had a legitimate reason to collapse the cavern. If he hadn't done what he did, they would probably still be stuck at the entrance arguing about entering or not. That didn't mean that she had to say it to him though. She was still quite mad at how Lich handled the situation.

She began storming off deeper into the maze until she realized how creepy everything was with the webs and everything. It was also quite dark as the glowing fungi were partially covered by the white blanket of death that was laid down everywhere.

"Uhh. Lich. I accept your apology. Now just get up here and lead the way." Pyrrha nervously shifter her legs as she watched the surroundings for any surprise attacks. Lich did not say anything as he quietly assumed his position as the meat shield, drew his sword, and began leading the way. Pyrrha copied Lich and drew her weapons as well as she followed him deeper into the maze. It was a slow arduous process as the cobwebs continued to try and entangle the duo. Thankfully, Lich was in the front so he was able to take care of the more stubborn strings with his monstrous strength. Any attempt to tangle Lich was futile as he effortlessly ripped up the strings. The same could not be said for Pyrrha as she had to continuously cut the strings that wrapped around her limbs, especially her foot. The twists and turns of the maze did not help their situation at all. As Pyrrha was closely following Lich, she felt a sudden chill from a sudden wind and suddenly saw something scuttle across the adjacent tunnel.

Panicked, she pulled on Lich's arm and pointed in the direction of the movement. Understanding Pyrrha's gesture, he cautiously turned and began walking in the direction of the movement. Suddenly, something swung towards Lich out of nowhere, and Lich grabbed… a piece of rock that was swinging from the cobwebs.

"Seriously?"

"I thought it was a spider!"

"Whatever." Lich cut down the rock and continued down the previous path. Pyrrha took one last look at the rock before turning around and chased after Lich. She really did not want to get left behind. The fact that they have not met any Grimm spiders yet was highly unnerving. Every time they arrived at the intersection, Pyrrha swore that there were red eyes watching the two, but Lich dismissed it as Pyrrha's nerves because the red eyes disappeared every time Lich turned his head toward the direction Pyrrha's hands pointed at.

They continued onward with the stray string swaying in the soft occasional winds blowing through the tunnels providing a ghostly atmosphere. Lich continued to cut down all the webbing that obstructed their pathway until they got to a particularly thick mass of webs that Lich was forced to use both of his hands in his attempt to saw through the obstacle.

"Do you need help?" Seeing that Lich was having a bit of trouble cutting through the massive web, Pyrrha offered to help Lich. Pyrrha really wanted to continue onward and leave the place as fast as possible.

"No. It's just that this stupid web, heck I don't know if this counts as a web. It feels and looks more like a giant ball of tangled spider silk. This web ball has a bunch of rocks woven into it so cutting through is a bit harder. I'm almost done anyway. A little more and I'll just rip the damn thing down."

A massive spider jumped through the opening that Lich has cut down and smashed into him causing him to fall down backward. Lich desperately tried to push the giant spider off not caring about the fangs since they were not strong enough to puncture his armor. That and he had no flesh for the spider to work its poison on. Pyrrha tried to rescue Lich, but she was held at bay by the Grimm's masterful use of its shadowy forelegs as it swiped at Pyrrha. Lich wiggled his longsword into position before shoving the blade straight into the Grimm's underbelly causing it to shudder its death throes and collapse on Lich. He crawled out from under the spider with Pyrrha's help as it was dissolving.

"Well, fuck me. These things can set up ambushes like that. I don't like this one bit." Pyrrha could only nod in agreement. The sudden attack made her heart skip a couple beats.

Lich got back onto his feet and shook/tore off the strings that stuck to him before continuing onwards. Strangely, the rest of the trip was uninterrupted. They duo managed to get to the entrance to the DF without further trouble. The entrance was a simple hole that leads straight up. There were holes imbedded in the wall that would make it easier for them to climb up the hole. Lich motioned to Pyrrha to start climbing, but the relief on Pyrrha's face quickly turned into horror. With no further warning, Pyrrha's leg was pulled out from under her and with a scream, she was pulled back into the spider's maze.

"FUCK!" Lich snapped out from his shocked state and began running after Pyrrha. However, he lost her in the winding tunnels. It soon became difficult trying to distinguish where Pyrrha was with her yelling and screaming because the sound began echoing through the maze. "Oh, this is not good."

Pyrrha was desperately struggling against the spider that had pulled her back into its home. It turned out that there was a string around both of her legs which the Grimm took advantage of. As she was being pulled around the winding tunnels deeper into the spider's lair, she tried to fight the pulling by digging her hand into whatever she could grab. The spider webs were too finely woven for her to put her fingers through, and the other spider silk she could grab either too thin to grab properly or it snapped. Suddenly, the pull on her legs slackened, and Pyrrha immediately rolled away before the spider could pin her down underneath her. Pyrrha reached for her sword and shield only to realize that her shield was no longer on her back, and the sword was blocked by the spider Grimm. She was in a really bad position.

She began cautiously watching the spider trying to move around it to reach her sword, but the Grimm continued to make threatening gestures, forcing her to move back. This continued for a while until Pyrrha decided to make a feint to the left before making a dangerous move to slide underneath the spider. The spider fell for it, and she quickly ran for the sword before she was knocked to the side by another shadowy figure. As she desperately tried to prevent the Grimm from sinking its black fangs into her face, the other Grimm walked up and tried to bite her legs. However, Pyrrha's aura flared up preventing the Grimm from pumping its venom into Pyrrha. Realizing the futility of using its fangs, the two Grimm paused for a moment and switched tactics. They began spraying spider silk from its black abdomen and began entrapping Pyrrha.

Pyrrha continued to struggle, but her options were limited. Soon she was completely immobilized from the spider's webs, and she watched through the gaps in the silk another massive spider Grimm appear from the path way as the other two spiders wandered off. One look at the size of the fang and Pyrrha knew that her aura would not last very long from the Grimm's attack.

Her eyes fell on her sword for it was her only chance at salvation. She needed to get her hands on it, but how? As the Grimm drew closer and closer, Pyrrha's panic grew as she began desperately twisting around and squirming to loosen the strings, but it was futile. As the fangs hovered over her, Pyrrha had only thought running through her head. She wanted to live, and her semblance activated.

Her sword flew into the air and impaled itself on the spider's eyes. As it backed off shrieking, she ordered the sword to fly to her and cut her loose. Soon, she was free from the strings as she dashed away with her sword in hand. Thankfully, she took her time to memorize the map as well so she was able to navigate much of the maze until she felt something grab her from behind. Struggling against its grip, she heard a familiar voice.

"Calm down! It's me!" Pyrrha froze and looked up at to see Lich's familiar helmet. Tears bursting from her eyes she hugged him and buried her head into his armor. It hurt, but she did not care.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Lich quickly began looking over Pyrrha to see if she had any bite wounds as he handed her the shield that he had found while trying to track Pyrrha down. He had no idea how venomous the Grimm spiders were, but he did not want to risk it.

"No, I'm fine, but…" Pyrrha looked behind Lich and began running dragging Lich with her.

"What's going… HOLY FUCKIN SHIT. THAT IS A BIG SPIDER." Lich picked up Pyrrha and began running at full speed with a massive Grimm spider behind them. At the entrance to the DF, Lich practically threw Pyrrha up into the hole before he jumped up himself. They scuttled upward, and they collapsed on the floor when they reached the top.

As they looked up at the ceiling, Lich couldn't help but say, "Well, that was close."


	7. Chapter 7

It has been a long time since Lich had felt fear. After all, there was not much to fear when he himself was immortal, had access to magic, and had very little attachment to his belongings since they could all be replaced. In fact, he had almost forgotten what actual fear felt like. However, when Pyrrha was dragged away right in front of his eyes, he was reminded of what fear felt like. The way his heart clenched up, and the panic that follows. The way desperation ran rampant throughout Lich's mind when he found Pyrrha's shield without its owner. Only for fear to give way to much needed relief when he found her.

Now, the nightmare was over, and after a quick talk with Pyrrha, Lich just didn't have the strength to stand up. He had forgotten what jelly legs felt like and at this moment after the massive goose chase, he needed a much needed mental rest. Surprisingly, it was Pyrrha who had the stamina to go out and begin scouting after their little chat of Pyrrha's near death experience. Lich heard Pyrrha return back to their little cave and once more sighed in relief that she was alright mentally and physically. It seems that Pyrrha's joy of unlocking her semblance outweighed possible PTSD of her almost dying. He'll have to watch over her mental state over the next few days to make sure that she was alright. Lich himself had experience with going mad so he should _hopefully_ be able to catch any warning signs that may pop up in Pyrrha. Pyrrha plopped down next to Lich and began her report.

"Well, you were definitely right about the DF being completely different. There are actually plants in here and some sort of fake sun! It's practically like a jungle in this floor! I seriously thought we were outside until I saw the ceiling. And the room is HUGE!"

"Yeah. The fake sun is some sort of hollowed out rock with some sort of shining magma inside. It even follows a similar pattern of our sun with day and night. After some time, the magma in that rock will recede to simulate some sort of night time which is a very dangerous time by the way. Anyway, Grimm is not going to be the only enemy on this floor now. There are going to be other monsters up here. I don't know if they are living or not since my magic can still affect them, but either way, the danger level is 100 times higher than before. It's why we are staying in this tiny room for a day and a night to gather our wits before moving forward."

"Are you going to get up? You've been laying down for an awfully long time you know."

"It's just the fear that is just rushing out of me. Those spiders gave me a massive scare when they dragged you away like that. Like man. I haven't felt that afraid since a really long time. I'm just glad that you are alright. I'm just going to ask again. Are you _sure_ that _you_ will be alright? You did almost die." Pyrrha looked down and closed her eyes as she thought.

"Yeah. But I'm kinda used to almost dying now. Yeah, that was the closest I've been to dying so far, but I've sort of been expecting to almost die like every day I've been in here. You could say I'm almost used to it." Lich silently watched Pyrrha.

"That's not good you know." Pyrrha could only nod in affirmation as she felt Lich struggling to think of other things to say to cheer her up. Although Pyrrha couldn't see Lich's facial expressions because of his helmet, she began to pick up on other little clues that showed what Lich might be thinking. The little tilt of his head when he is confused. His facepalms when something hurts his head. The way he scratches his helmet when he is nervous. His little gestures told Pyrrha a lot about what Lich was feeling at the moment.

"Lich. You should stop worrying. I'm not going to go insane. Yet. I mean we are finally on the DF now. One step closer to getting home. Yeah, it may be the most dangerous, but I finally have my semblance unlocked! I still don't know what exactly my semblance is, but now I have a generally idea of it. This is going to make our trip so much easier now. I am actually full of hope right now. It's alright." Lich stared hard at Pyrrha before nodding in confirmation. He got up and did a small stretch.

"Well, if you say so. What are you going to do for our down time? I think we still have a couple of hours before the magma pulls away and night comes. So, if you want to do something that requires lots of light then now is the time to do it." Pyrrha took out a couple of rocks, metal scraps, and her weapons and laid it out before her.

"I think I will work on my semblance. You?" Lich looked down at his armor and noticed dents and cracks all over his armor. It was time for some maintenance as well. One problem with titanium was that it was unable to take multiple hits of large strength like steel. Normally it is not a big problem, but because of his role as meat shield for Pyrrha and the recent Grimm hordes, his armor has seen better days. He thought about switching his armor into steel, but he still has not found a good combination of alloys that matched titanium's strength. Also, it was heavier so he would be sacrificing speed. He decided against it at the end.

"Hey, Pyrrha. Do you want some music to listen to while you are working?" Pyrrha's eyes lit up with excitement. Lich rarely offered it because he was always paranoid of attacks that used the music as cover for an ambush.

"What's the occasion?" Lich shrugged in response.

"First, the monsters in the DF tend to be lax in the 'daytimes'. They usually don't actively go and hunt. That's more reserved for the night time so we should be fine for now. Also, I think we need something to listen to calm our minds after what happened. No matter how many times you reassure me that you are fine, I still see your legs shaking." Lich pointed at Pyrrha's leg before she quickly stopped the quivering with her own hands.

"Well, let's see what music is playing right now." With those words, a soft piano music began resonating from Lich. Sadly, he had no control over the type of music that played from him. All he knows is that the music had a tendency to reflect his mental state. As for the type of music, any could come out; however, he never heard any songs with lyrics. With the soft music bouncing throughout the cavern, the duo began working to the beat of the song.

As the magma began to recede from the ball of rock in the ceiling, nighttime arrived causing massive unrest throughout the cavern. Lich quickly began barricading all entrances to their little room and soon the only source of light was the fireplace in the side of the room. The only sound was the cawing of what sounds to be crows.

Lich was silently watching Pyrrha play around with the pieces of metal as they began zooming around her. It turns out that Pyrrha's semblance was polarity. In other words, she could control magnetism. If they ever sparred again, Lich knew that he would have a far harder time trying to defeat Pyrrha. Although she won't be able to control his armor because titanium wasn't very magnetic, she could control his weapon to prevent him from hitting her. Or he could simply make a massive stick to beat her with. After all, wood wasn't magnetic.

Either way, Pyrrha was no longer deadweight if she could properly control her semblance. Right now, she was practicing fine control, trying to move the metal exactly how it wanted to move. Suddenly, Pyrrha lost control of her piece of scrap metal, and it zipped away from her and smacked Lich in the helmet. She was also failing quite badly with it. Sighing, Lich pulled out the piece of metal and handed it back to her.

"Sorry." Pyrrha took her piece of scrap metal back without a blink of her eye and went back to practicing and failing again. Pyrrha soon became frustrated and threw down the piece of metal in a fit of anger.

"Difficult?" Pyrrha nodded in response before she began complaining about how hard it was trying to prevent it from simply flying off. Trying to levitate the metal was extremely difficult for her because she had only push and pull mechanics available to her. If she only pushed, it only zoomed away while pulling to her risked her getting impaled. It was tricky trying to balance the two forces.

"Also, it still sucks when I compare it to what you can do." Lich was far more powerful and useful then what Pyrrha could do. Because she was only limited to iron and steel, if she met an opponent who did not have those two items, the fight would be much more difficult. She asked Lich if he had any tips.

"Well, with a semblance like yours, it would be best to avoid showing off with it. Because you are limited to what you can control, you are going to have to hide what your semblance is. Be discreet about it, and don't show it off. Also, you can actually use your semblance on other people so not much of a problem if they are wearing metal." Pyrrha thought about what Lich said. It made sense if she thought about it. As long as her opponent was unaware, she would always have the edge. After all, many of the weapons in the current times relied on steel. However, she realized that Lich wasn't completely right.

"Lich. Your darkness spells can attack living people though. I remember you somehow gaining control of my shadow and restraining me with it one time. I don't think that spell failed when it was near me…"

"Well, you should already know that darkness is an exception. It doesn't work like my other spells anyway. It's a bit more special. However, my point remains." They went back to staring at the flames that were flickering in the fireplace. Pyrrha's eyes began to grown heavy, and she soon fell asleep.

As soon as the magma began pouring back into the glob in the top of the ceiling, Lich woke Pyrrha, and they began their trek into the forest that greeted their sight. They had a tight schedule to keep because they could not get caught in the open during the night time. They had to reach the safe zone before night time. Thankfully, it wasn't very far away. They could reach it with plenty of time to spare… if there were no interruptions. Lich was pretty adamant that they would most likely be interrupted by something so he told her to stay alert.

They began carefully crossing the terrain. Occasionally, they came across fruit trees that emitted a delicious fragrant. Pyrrha was tempted to go to one of the fruit trees to take a fruit, but she was stopped each time. His response to her protests was that there was a reason why fruit did not appear on the menu very often. Remembering about an entry about trees coming alive to attack any who came too close in the _Encyclopedia of Things That Can Kill You_ , she decided to leave the fruit alone and continue walking. Every time something approached them, Lich quickly used his magic to dig a hole and jumped down with Pyrrha. Fighting was to be last resort in the DF.

Other than that, it was an uneventful walk. They made sure to avoid enemies and stayed far away from things that looked suspicious. Better safe than sorry. However, the mosquitos were quite persistent in their harassment of Pyrrha. She probably got bitten a hundred times so far. It seems that even mosquitos exist in the caverns.

"I know of a way to will help alleviate those mosquitos." Pyrrha perked up at Lich's words.

"What is it?"

"You won't like it."

"I would rather not have to endure the mosquitos any longer." Lich took one look at Pyrrha before pointing at the mud pile next to them.

"Cover yourself with mud. They can't bite through it." Pyrrha looked down at the mud pile before turning to glare at him.

"You're joking, aren't you?"

"Nope. I swear that I am not lying. I don't know how to make any mosquito repellant, and I do know that mud is a last resort for mosquitos. There is a reason why pigs like to cover themselves with mud." Pyrrha blanched at the thought of covering herself in mud, but the itching that came from all the mosquito bites she suffered caused her to change her mind. She dipped a shaky hand into the gooey mud pile and began slathering it on her arm. Then, she heard Lich say that she was taking too long and that he was going to push Pyrrha into the mud. Before Pyrrha could stop Lich, she felt a push from behind her as she fell into the mud pile. She was about to yell in protest, but if she opened her mouth, mud would get in. Getting up angrily, she got pushed back down as she felt hands holding her down and quickly rubbing mud everywhere on her. When she could stand back up, she began glaring at Lich.

"You were taking too long." Pyrrha was about to begin yelling at Lich to give her a piece of her mind until she remembered where she was and who she was talking to. After years of isolation, Lich's social skills have deteriorated.

"Just because I was too slow doesn't mean you should push me down like that."

"If I said to hurry up, would you really? You would probably go like a little bit faster, but it would still be painfully slow." Pyrrha let out a shaky sigh.

"Even so, you shouldn't do that."

"Okay. Okay. Sorry. But this time, I did warn you. You also look like shit." Pyrrha's answer to that was a block of metal to the face causing him to fall down. Even though it was a bit loud, she needed an outlet, and Lich had a habit of saying whatever came to his mind at times. It's as if his filter rotted away. With a huff, Pyrrha began moving onwards.

As they went deeper into the forest, the trees began to get taller, and more of the faux sunlight was blocked by the canopy. As a result, it was quite dark at the floor of the forest. Occasionally, a couple of birds began singing their song, but considering the environment, it added a far more scary aspect to their hike. Something zoomed by in the corner of Pyrrha's eyes and the bushes waved from the disturbance. She pulled on Lich's arm.

"I know. I saw it, too" Lich whispered back.

"What is it?" Lich paused before whispering back it was velociraptor Grimms. He told Pyrrha to get ready to climb a tree as fast as she could. As soon as they got to a thick enough tree with high branches, Lich picked up Pyrrha and hurled her up allowing her to grab on to the branch. Lich propelled himself upwards with a ground spell.

Realizing their prey is trying to escape a dozen Grimms poured out from their cover, and they quickly began cutting at the tree. Pyrrha looked down at the raptors before getting a bit nervous at the shuddering movements the tree was starting to make.

"Lich. I don't think this was a good idea."

"No. It was the best one. These assholes are like really good at close combat. It's how I trained myself with using those damn weapons. In addition, they never travel alone, and I don't think I can fight a dozen of them while trying to protect you."

"Then what do we do!" Pyrrha angrily pointed at the Raptors cutting away at the base of their tree.

Lich did a quick survey of their surrounding before glancing at Pyrrha. "You know how I said to always keep a look out for your surroundings. I'll just give you a quick example of that lesson. We are going to jump to that tree."

Pyrrha looked at the tree he was pointing at before replying that she can't jump that far. However, he simply replied it wasn't a problem since he could just throw her to the tree, which he did soon after. Thankfully, Pyrrha had aura to take the worst of the damage when she hit the trunk of the target tree, but she could still feel the pain. Lich gracefully jumped towards her with a push from his wind spell to compensate for any distance he needed.

"Now what? I'm pretty sure the Raptors are just going to come to this tree to cut down now." Sure enough, the Raptors were sprinting to their current tree.

"Not quite. They won't make it." Lich then threw down a piece of bark at one of the fruit trees, causing a fruit to fall off its branches just when the Raptors were passing under the said tree. With a hungry roar, the tree bursts into life attacking the raptors with its branches and vines.

"Alright. Time to go." Lich began climbing down as the Raptors were getting annihilated by a plant. Pyrrha simply shook her head at the absurd sight and followed him down. Once they were on the ground, Pyrrha heard stomping noises coming from behind her. She quickly ducked and rolled without looking back.

She heard a clang from behind her, and she saw Lich and the raptor engaged in a close combat duel. She saw the raptor change the length of its claws to match the longsword, and it quickly turned into a furious claw/ sword fight. She had a difficult time keeping up with the fight. Sadly, it appeared that there was another survivor who almost took her head while she was distracted by Lich's fight.

Pyrrha's aura glowed red as it absorbed the hit, and Pyrrha quickly got into her fighting position. If these raptors were able to go as fast as Lich, she would have to adopt a similar strategy when she sparred Lich. However, she wasn't sure about how the raptor fought so she got into a defensive position behind her shield in order to gain a bit more information of the velociraptor Grimm fighting style.

The raptor charged Pyrrha in an attempt to body slam her shield; however, she was already used to such tactics thanks to Lich so she quickly sidestepped and angled her shield. She would never have the speed to fully dodge so deflection was the best she could do. As the raptor zoomed past her, Pyrrha tried to cut the Grimm, but it was able to block her side cut with its right claws and attacked the other side of Pyrrha with its left claws. Pyrrha was forced to move her shield to block the other strike resulting in an opening that the raptor took advantage of by trying to bite her in the face.

To avoid the strike, Pyrrha crouched down, and she countered the attempted bite by immediately shooting back up again smashing the top of her head into the bottom of the Grimm's jaw stunning the Grimm. Pyrrha then realized something. Although the Grimm were able to match Lich's speed, it did not have his agility. If she tried a similar move with Lich, she would have missed because Lich would have been able to pull his head back in time. Lich's agility was why Pyrrha's counters never really hit often.

However, the Grimm was smarter than it looked. After getting its jaw hit by its prey's head, it realized that it may be outmatched in close combat. Its new plan of attack was lengthening its claws, and it adopted a hit and run tactic. It would dart in, take a stab, and jump away. After all, Grimm don't tire out.

Realizing what the Grimm was trying to do, Pyrrha threw her shield at the raptor when it was running away. It dodged with the shield harmlessly passing over the raptor. The raptor began running back to Pyrrha since she no longer had a shield, but it was a fatal error. The Grimm soon collapsed with a shield embedded in its head. Pyrrha went over and ripped the shield out of the dissolving corpse and saw that Lich had already finished his fight and was merely watching Pyrrha.

"That was great. However, I really don't like your strategy of throwing your shield…" Pyrrha shrugged defiantly.

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but NOT throwing your weapons is kind of the point in a fight. Especially your shield. Without your shield, your defense is seriously compromised."

"Yeah, but my semblance allows me to quickly retrieve my shield."

"If you meet an opponent who can counter that attack, you are fucked since you would no longer have any shield to block that said attack."

"Alright. I'll keep my shield throwing to a minimum." Lich tilted his head at Pyrrha's answer.

"I would prefer that you never throw your shield. Even with your semblance, that shield throwing is going to get you killed." Pyrrha rebutted with what Lich said about being flexible on the battlefield. With a sigh, Lich decided not to get into a fight with Pyrrha. If he was to convince her otherwise, he would probably need to teach her how dangerous it was in the sparring ring. Sadly, sparring in the DF was a no go. Far too many enemies lived on this floor.

They continued on their journey. Although they encountered more raptor Grimm, it was the duo who had the initiative in the future encounters so Lich was able to quickly reduce their numbers with a well-placed AOE spell. However, another complication soon popped up.

This was not Lich's fault in any way. He had no lung so he did not breathe. Yes, he did sigh, but it was mainly a habit. As a result, he was not aware that there were places in the forest that there were certain plants that released a spore that was quite intoxicating to living beings. Resulting in this current scene.

"I want chocolate. You know. I've always like bunnies. They're pretty cute. Oh, chocolate armor." Pyrrha then proceeded to lick Lich's helmet.

"Pyrrha. Would you kindly stop licking me? I would prefer not to get arrested by the FBI." Lich tried to tilt his head from Pyrrha reach, but he could only go so far since he was carrying Pyrrha due to her inability to walk straight. If he had known that the rainbow flower would result in this, he would have stopped her from smelling it.

It took multiple tries to stop Pyrrha from licking his helmet, but she then switched to cuddling his head. Realizing that this was a far better alternative to the licking, he stopped trying to push her body from his helmet as she began drooling all over his visor. On second thought, Lich was seriously considering knocking Pyrrha out.

"Weeeh. It's a bird! It's an airship! It's a Grimm!" Lich snapped his head back at the last words to see a massive flying Grimm. He couldn't remember what name it was, but it was one of the flying dinosaur Grimm. Cursing at the horrible timing, he dived to the left to avoid its swooping grasp.

"Owww. You have to be gentle with a princess. You suck at being the knight. You should take off the armor. You don't deserve it." Pyrrha slurred her words as she began trying to unbuckle Lich's armor, forcing Lich to cancel his spell to focus on stopping Pyrrha from undressing him.

"No! Bad girl. Stop it. This is sexual harassment!" Lich began slapping at Pyrrha's wandering hands. The fact that he was getting harassed by a 12-year-old girl was another blow to what was left of Lich's pride.

"No, you stop it! You don't deserve this armor. I bet you stole it from a real knight!" Pyrrha continued her assault on Lich's armor.

"Raaagh!" With a frustrated roar, Lich devoted his focus to stopping Pyrrha from unbuckling his armor and dodging the constant swipes from the Grimm. This meant that he did not realize that the path he was running on suddenly dipped off into a steep incline. He and Pyrrha began tumbling down the path and into the more denser parts of the forest resulting in the Grimm breaking off due to its inability to follow its prey any further.

"Yay! I found treasure! Call my Captain Nikos! Arrrr." Pyrrha stood up holding Lich's box. She then began dancing what appeared to be a victory dance with it. Lich had enough of Pyrrha's antics so he crouched down onto the ground and began smashing his head onto a rock. As a result, he almost missed a glow that came from the box, and after a few blinks, Pyrrha stopped dancing, looked around, glanced at the box in her hands, and said, "What's going on? Did we teleport or something? Hey, my mosquito bites are gone!"

Pyrrha then turned to see Lich slowly moving his head to glare at Pyrrha before extending his hands for the box. As she was handing Lich the box, she couldn't help but ask, "Uh. Did I do something?"

"No. Nothing happened. We are going to keep moving, and you will not sniff any more flowers. I am glad that you managed to snap out of it." With that Lich took a look at his map and began storming off in the direction of the nearest safe zone. Pyrrha looked around in confusion before quickly following Lich.

On the other hand, Lich was busy thanking the box for whatever it did. His box probably had a detox effect or something. Perhaps it was his semblance.

Soon, they were able to arrive in the safe zone with no further trouble. When they reached the safe zone, it was about mid-afternoon if they went with the lighting of the magma ball at the ceiling. Once they got inside, Pyrrha collapsed onto the floor and began chewing on some dried fish and began peeling off the dried mud. She began regretting her choice because the mosquitos managed to get inside their little room and began pestering Pyrrha once more. Thankfully, Lich was able to absorb the water vapor from their surroundings and made more mud for Pyrrha which she reluctantly reapplied.

The following two days in the DF was a repeat of the first day with progress being painfully slow because Lich was extremely paranoid about not being caught in the open during the nighttime so they stopped at every safe zone to set up camp. Not that Pyrrha was complaining. One time there were so many enemies and interruptions that a three-hour walk turned into a 12-hour hide and seek competition with this gigantic T-Rex Grimm. They barely made it to the safe zone in time.

However, on the third day of the DF, one of Lich's worst fears occurred. Pyrrha became sick from her mosquito bites. Lich should have known that the mosquitos were probably carriers of some sort of disease. Although Pyrrha's aura allowed her to recover from the bites in 24 hours, a couple of bites persisted and grew bigger. Much bigger than normal and Pyrrha began suffering from fever and nausea. Pyrrha's aura was consistently low as if something was eating away at her aura. He created a bed from the leaves of the tree and used a rag from ripping up one of Pyrrha's clothes in order to cool her forehead. Since they needed fresh water and food, Lich was forced to periodically leave Pyrrha in order to get more supplies. Then, he went back to nursing Pyrrha to the best of his abilities.

"Fuck you tree! Let me get some of your oranges!" Currently, Lich was fighting with a tree to pick some oranges. He was pretty sure that vitamin C was a good thing to eat during times of illness, but the tree was not making it easy for him to pick the fruit. Lich was forced to dodge three roots that burst out of the ground in an attempt to entangle him. While Lich was in the air from his attempts at dodging the roots, the tree followed the attack with a sweep from its branch and smacked Lich. Lich quickly grabbed the branch and began stripping more oranges from the branch as it was swinging him around. Once he got a couple more, he let go and got flung far from the tree. He hurried back to Pyrrha to see her squirming in pain.

"Hey, I got some oranges." His response was a weak hi as she tried and failed to sit up. Lich quickly came over and cooled down the rag with more water that he chilled with his magic and began peeling oranges for Pyrrha to slowly nibble on while she had a death grip on his box. Lich still remembered how the box was able to have some sort of healing effect on Pyrrha when she was intoxicated by the flower so he gave the box to Pyrrha. It had a limited effect on her, but it was better than nothing. It did have an anti-mosquito effect on Pyrrha so that was another positive. No need for Pyrrha to suffer from further mosquito bites after all. He wished he could check Pyrrha's temperature, but his skeletal hands were not very receptive to heat. He had to depend on Pyrrha's feverous mind to tell him if her fever was going down at all. So far, the answer was that it was getting worse.

Without warning, Pyrrha smacked the orange away from Lich's hand and went to a jar in the corner and began heaving. She was able to keep most of the food down, but some made its way up. As she laid back down onto her bed, Lich told her to sit up, and he began wiping off the sweat that was drenching the leftovers of her clothes. As he passed by the mosquito bites, they were only growing bigger by the hour and seemed as if they were breathing.

Wait. BREATHING? Lich grabbed Pyrrha's arm for a closer look and sure enough the center of the bites were moving. Then he remembered something from his old world: botflies. Parasites that used mosquitos to come to their victims, and the maggots burrowed into the skin and began eating the flesh around it. Fuck. He needed to get these fuckers out of Pyrrha.

He told Pyrrha to lay back down as he began preparing the necessary tools for the extraction. He created a tweezer and a scalpel using his magic by manipulating a piece of scrap metal into the desired form and placed them near the fire to sterilize it since he didn't want to give Pyrrha another infection after all. There were most likely other methods of removing the parasites, but he did not know of them nor did he have the materials to perform them. After a couple of minutes, Lich sat down next to Pyrrha and dragged her bed to a place with lots of lighting.

"What. What are you doing?" Pyrrha eyed the tools in Lich's hands.

"Pyrrha. You've got parasites in those bumps. I'm going to cut them out." Her eyes widened at Lich's response. She was going to say more, but the strength left her so she merely gestured to Lich to continue. Pyrrha gripped Lich's heart box even tighter as Lich began cutting into the bumps.

"Fuckin. Little bugger. Got you." With a triumphant humph, Lich pulled out a maggot as it began squirming in the tweezers grasp.

"Actually, I don't think these are botflies…" The maggot had a massive toothy mouth at one of the ends, and it was currently trying to bite Lich.

"Fuckin fantasy world monsters." Lich dropped the maggot and crushed it before it could slither back to Pyrrha. Sadly, she saw the whole thing with wide eyes.

Lich continued working as he tried to cut out the rest of the maggots from Pyrrha's body. He probably made it messier than he should have, but he was trying hard not to cut the maggots while it was still inside of Pyrrha so he made wider incisions than he probably should have. Either way, as soon as the last maggot was taken out, the box shined in tangent with Pyrrha's aura as it quickly began healing Pyrrha. The wounds began closing, and Pyrrha's breathing became smoother.

"Lich. The fever's gone."


	8. Chapter 8

With a thundering crash, a massive Allosaurus Grimm came crashing down after Pyrrha managed to cut one of its tendons at the leg. The two quickly jumped out of the way, and Lich smashed a tree trunk into the struggling Grimm's face and caved it in. Once the overgrown shadow lizard began dissolving, the two quickly ran off since the noise from their fighting may have attracted other monstrosities.

Once they were a good distance from their fight, they climbed a tree to take a break. Pyrrha took out her water bottle to gulp down the water to quench her thirst while Lich's box was hanging around her neck like a necklace. Lich's box had the power of healing wounds and sickness and quickly recharging aura like a portable aura battery. In addition, it had a repulsive effect on the mosquitos and other small Grimm so Lich decided to let Pyrrha hold onto his box. Obviously, Pyrrha would gain more benefits than Lich holding onto it.

However, if Pyrrha held onto the box, it negated Lich's boundary of 1km. In other words, Lich could now be separated from the box which was another benefit since Lich could now scout out more dangerous areas by himself. One problem was that the box had a perpetual black glow to it if Pyrrha held on to it so it looked as if Pyrrha had a cursed necklace around her.

While the two were resting on the top of a tree watching Grimm pass by under them, Lich was staring at his box. "You know. Did I ever tell you that when you wear my box like that, you look like this character from this show called Yu-gi-oh?"

"What's that?"

"Oh never mind. Just a show from my hometown. It was about a stupid card game. Hated that game so much because it was practically a troll heaven with all the trap cards that existed."

"Oh. Reminds me of a certain card game actually." Pyrrha thought of a card game that revolved around the four kingdoms.

"Anyway. Please don't lose my box. I don't care about how roughly you treat it since it is near invincible, but don't lose it. It really would be a pain in the ass trying to find it again." Pyrrha rolled her eyes as she once more reassured Lich that she would take excellent care of Lich's box once more. This was probably the one hundredth time today that he has asked this same question. It seemed that he has made a habit of asking the same thing every day since she was holding onto the box for Lich.

A gentle breeze rolled through the trees blowing up Pyrrha's ponytail. It was Lich's idea to put Pyrrha's long hair into a ponytail. She was considering of cutting it, but she was never good at cutting hair, and Lich's idea of a haircut was simply cutting all of it out so they decided on a ponytail for Pyrrha. She actually looked pretty good in one, and she was considering of keeping it once she got back home.

After their small break, they resumed their journey to the next save zone which was next to this small cliff. The fake sun was starting to dim out simulating an evening as the Grimm and other monsters began to grow restless waiting for the magma to recede so they can go on the hunt.

Once inside the little room that Lich has made into the cliff, Pyrrha began wiping her teeth with some salt. No need for cavities in a place in which dentists weren't readily available. She already had a cavity once in their journey, and it was not a fun experience having her teeth get ripped out by Lich. Thankfully, the box grew it back for Pyrrha, but even so she did not want another one. Meanwhile Lich was looking over the map and his notes as he began planning out their new path. However, from the way he was tapping his foot, it seemed that he was nervous about something.

With one last gurgle, she cleaned out her mouth and sat beside Lich trying to see what was bothering Lich. Eventually, she just decided to ask Lich what was wrong.

Lich looked up at Pyrrha before going back to his map. "Pyrrha. This is the farthest I have gotten on the DF. You see I have never really explored the DF a lot after my first experience with it. However, it took me a couple decades to realize that it may be a good idea to continue challenging the DF so I decided to suck up the fear from my first attempt at the DF and explored this floor up to here. It's why we were able to avoid a lot of fights and avoided many of the traps that riddle this floor. I have memorized hunting grounds, the times the Grimm makes their patrols, where all the dangerous Grimm and monsters are… all the way up to this point. Starting from this point, we are going in blind. Yes, I did mention that my undead creatures did scout, but they only scouted out room shapes and distance. They weren't smart enough to record any Grimm patterns or any other stuff. Going in blind is really unnerving."

"Well, I am a LOT stronger now, and you can scout it out beforehand, can't you?" Lich looked back up at Pyrrha before shaking his head.

"Pyrrha. You don't understand how dangerous the DF really is. Everything I have learned from the DF is from trial and error. From now on, any scouting I do will take too long since it would be my first time, and you should already know of how dangerous it is to stay in one place by yourself."

Pyrrha cringed at the memory. Unsurprisingly, Grimm seemed to have an uncanny ability to track her down. She remembered the time when Lich left Pyrrha to scout out this particularly dangerous path; however, he got held up because of the sheer amount of traps that riddled the area. It ended up with Lich coming back to a sight of Pyrrha desperately holding off a massive amount of Grimm from breaking into the safe room by herself. If Pyrrha didn't have her semblance that and was able to use this neat trump card that Lich taught her, she would have died that day.

Since Pyrrha's semblance was polarity, Lich brainstormed a couple of methods for Pyrrha to capitalize on her semblance. Although she had a major advantage over people since many people used steel in their weapons, it only worked if people didn't know of her semblance. At first, she thought that as long she was discreet about it, it would be fine, but Lich had a tendency to spout out really deep words time to time. Apparently, being by himself for so long made him think about a lot of things, and one of the things he told Pyrrha was that all secrets tend to leak someday. Pyrrha took his words to heart and thought a bit deeply about her semblance.

Once the secret was out, she would be heavily nerfed. So Pyrrha asked Lich if he had any back up plans if the secret ever got out. The best Pyrrha could think of was simply throwing metal objects at her enemies, but even then she wanted something better because her enemies would be other huntsmen after all. In addition, she could be ambushed in a place in which her environment would not have any metal.

Lich thought of the perfect trump card for Pyrrha. His gift to Pyrrha was a whole can of… sharp metal shavings. At first, Pyrrha thought this was another one of his stupid pranks and threw it back at him, but he picked it up and explained to her why this was a perfect trump card for Pyrrha if she can control it. He thought about a couple of anime he saw back on Earth, and realized that Pyrrha could create some storm of sharp metal objects. Since these shavings weren't very heavy, it would be easy for Pyrrha to pick and control. If she could get the shavings to a certain speed, they would be able to cut things as well.

Once he explained his thought process, Pyrrha's eyes grew bright with realization and went to practicing his idea with great success. If things got tough, Pyrrha would whip out her metal shavings, and it was a sight to behold. The way the shavings swarmed around Pyrrha and shot out tentacles of sharp metal objects that could cut up rocks like it was nothing was truly awe-inspiring. In addition, she found a way to add defensive mechanisms to her massive swarm by having them bunch up together to create a gigantic makeshift shield.

In fact, she decided to test out her trump card on a group of 24 raptor Grimm. She singlehandedly decimated them. Offensively, she could send out a stream of metal shards that cut up anything in its pathway, and she could change the direction or branch out the stream at her will. Defensively, she created some sort of dome around her with the shavings spinning rapidly around her. Any raptor that tried to attack Pyrrha had to go through the dome of death and none could do it in one piece.

Of course, her fighting with the raptor Grimm attracted a massive Spinosaurus Grimm, but she took care of it without trouble as well. When the Grimm tried to stomp on her, she clumped up her metal shards into a massive shield which stopped its foot, then she had the metal shards just swarm all around the overgrown lizard like a pack of piranhas. It got shredded in the end.

Since this new technique was Pyrrha's trump card (until her secret was out), she tried not to use it often. In addition, it did have its weaknesses as well. First, the metal shavings were smaller pieces of metal so if she met someone with a powerful fire semblance, the opponent would have an easier time melting the iron pieces so that Pyrrha wouldn't be able to use them. Of course, this could be remedied by Pyrrha using a certain alloy of steel that could endure lots of heat without melting, but even then it was something to keep in mind. The second problem would be wind. If the wind was strong, Pyrrha would have a harder time controlling her shards so that gaps would start appearing which her opponent could take advantage of. Third was acid. Acid would eat up her metal like it was nothing. There were probably more weaknesses, but that was for Pyrrha to figure out.

Even with all her weaknesses, Pyrrha was still a force to be reckoned with. Pyrrha told Lich to stop worrying so much since she wasn't the same kid she was when he first found her. She would be able to take care of herself while Lich scouted out the paths.

"Look. I know that you are a lot stronger than you used to be, but even so. This is the _DF_. A place that even gave me the shivers. So I am going to be quite forward with you. I really don't think we should separate anymore. Yeah, we did it before, but I already had an idea of what to expect so the scouting was more of making sure everything was what I expected. Any future scouting is going to take days or even weeks to get it done properly which is a problem because you don't have the supplies to stay in a safe zone for more than a day, and you are going to get attacked if you stay in one place for too long. We should stick together from now on. Who knows what other insane shit may pop up from now on. It's not that I am questioning your ability to take care of yourself, but more of we can't underestimate this floor. So no more scouting by ourselves anymore. You are a walking beacon of 'eat me' after all." Pyrrha nodded at Lich's reasoning and went back to staring at the map which raised a question.

"Lich. Why did you stop exploring this floor?" She looked over at him to see him rubbing his kneecaps.

"Well, I just got sick of dying so much. For example, if you look at the map, we have three options. We can go to the right, left, or middle paths. The left is a no go because it practically a swamp with crocodiles everywhere. Not just any crocodile, but the huge ones. After getting eaten, I was like 'I'm done', and I went back down. I don't want to go the swamp route so we are going the middle route or the right route. Don't know what to expect though so are you feeling lucky?" Pyrrha looked at the map once more before tapping on the right one.

"Why that route?"

"I'm just feeling lucky."

"Good enough for me. Get some sleep. We're going as soon as the magma comes back." Pyrrha nodded in affirmation as Lich began folding up his maps and notes carefully since he was using a poor substitute for paper. Once he put them away, he was about to walk to his corner to let Pyrrha sleep by the fireplace.

"Lich. What did you mean by 'dying so much'?" Lich froze, and the tension escalated by a hundred-fold. He slowly turned around to see Pyrrha staring at him in concern.

"You're not keeping something important from me, are you?" Lich sighed. It seems the game was up. It was time to come clean. He walked back to where Pyrrha was sitting, and he took off his gauntlet. Pyrrha's eyes widened at the sight of his skeletal hand. She pinched herself to make sure it wasn't a dream before grabbing his hand to make sure it wasn't a trick. She then silently looked up at his helmet, and with a shaking hand, she slowly began reaching for his bindings. When the helmet fell off, she gasped in shock as a skull stared straight back at her.

"Lich… What happened to you?" He didn't answer as Pyrrha's hands began sliding down his cheekbones.

"I did say I was cursed. My flesh rotted away a long time ago. It… It was quite an experience. Even though I've been reduced to nothing more than a skeleton, it turns out that I can't die even if my entire body is completely destroyed. One time I got eaten, and I just woke up in a new skeleton body right next to that box." At those words, he pointed at the glowing box that was hanging from Pyrrha's neck.

"This body sucks you know? I can't eat, smell, or even feel very well. Heck, my sense of touch is so bad, I might as well say it doesn't even exist. I don't sleep, and at times, it really makes me question if I am human anymore."

"No! You're still human. Even if you're just… bones, you are really kind, and you're probably more human than some who have the full package."

"Don't worry. I know I still am human since I still have a soul. I think. The reason why I tell you to take care of my box is because I think it houses my soul. As long as this box is alright, I can't die even though I want to at times. After all, you already know how strong the box is…" Lich tapped the box as he said that, and the box shined as if to affirm Lich's words. Lich was about to go on before he was interrupted by Pyrrha hugging him.

"Everything makes sense now. Everything." Pyrrha looked up and stared into Lich's empty eye sockets. "Let's go back home and think of a way to get you back to normal. There has to be a way."

"But…"

Pyrrha quickly shut him up with a tut and a shake of her hands. "None of any pessimism. This box has your soul right? That means you are still alive to me. Once we get home, let's find the best researchers to work on this problem."

"How are you going to do that?" Pyrrha paused before replying, "The tournaments. I going to get famous through the tournaments. That way I would be able to make connections and hopefully recruit people who would be able to help you with your problem. Don't give up hope. We'll get through this together. It's the least I can do for everything you have helped me with. Make it your destiny to get rid of this… this curse."

"You know. I can't feel your hug, you know? Hugs sort of lost a lot of meaning since I can't feel them anymore…"

Lich began sobbing after Pyrrha's little speech which was quite the weird sight. The way his skeleton shuddered and the lack of any tears. However, Pyrrha simply ignored it all and continued to hug Lich as he attempted to cry with the remains of his body. It took a while before Lich was able to control himself and stood up.

"This is so embarrassing. Crying like this in front of a child."

"I won't tell anyone of what happened here."

"That doesn't really make me feel better for numerous reasons."

"Well, you can always hope that something will fall on my head. This box will heal me right up again, but I don't think it will give me back any lost memories." Lich and Pyrrha began laughing at her little attempt to joke around. It wasn't that good, but it somehow diffused the sorrowful atmosphere around them.

At first light of the next day, they headed out once more. It turned out that the right path was a rainforest biome. Since it takes Lich a week to reform his body next to the box, Lich had to be careful. If his body got destroyed, then Pyrrha would most likely die because she wouldn't be able to survive a week by herself before he could regenerate.

Dinosaur Grimms were still the main enemies in the rainforest, but there were other monstrosities. For example, toad Grimm now hid in ambush waiting for any prey to cross by them. It was only 30 minutes into their trek before they got into trouble with these Grimm.

"LICH!" Pyrrha desperately screamed as she grabbed the toad's mouth trying to avoid being swallowed. They were walking by until the ground erupted with three toads attempting to swallow them. Lich was able to dodge them all, but Pyrrha got caught by one of the toads so she was desperately trying to hold open the toad's mouth. The Grimm's tongue was covering her with this nasty toad fluid, but right now she was far more worried about keeping the toad's mouth open which was very difficult due to how slippery the skin was.

"Lich! I'm slipping!" Lich's answer was only a muffled grunt before he got smacked by a tongue and pulled into the toad's mouth. After a scary second, the toad's body was ripped apart by dark blades as Lich crawled out dripping frog saliva. Just when he stood back up, he got hit by the tongue of the other frog and eaten once more. Pyrrha watched the whole thing with a grimace.

This time the toad was ripped apart by an explosion of darkness. Once he crawled out, he quickly ran over to Pyrrha's toad before gutting it with his longsword.

"Ugggh. This is so disgusting." As Pyrrha began wiping off the toad's saliva with the leaves, she watched Lich crouch down and grab his head while groaning. Lich hated using darkness spells because of its peculiarities. Unlike other spells, darkness spells required a certain emotional state to be activated. Murderous intent or sadistic thoughts were necessary for him to use darkness spell with a chance of something similar to a hangover after use of the spell. This was the reason why he stuck with the other spells.

"Sorry for picking this path. I guess I shouldn't gamble in the future." Lich's response was a mere thumbs up as he went back to cradling his head.

The rainforest environment was a major obstacle to a majority of Lich's spells. It was too humid for his fire spells and electric spells, and the ground was too soft for his ground attacks. His air and water spells weren't really meant for combat against heavier creatures. His metal spells were completely reserved for crafting because of its restrictions. As a result, Lich was forced to use spells that used darkness as the medium.

"Oh god. I feel like I drank 50 bottles of soju."

"What's that?"

"A Korean liquor. You wouldn't know about it. Ugh."

"I'm surprised that you can have headaches considering you don't have a brain." Lich lifted his head to stare at Pyrrha before pointing the middle finger at her.

"Real mature right there. Pointing a middle finger at a 12-year-old." Pyrrha said while mockingly clapping. Lich merely shook his head before resuming his walk. 30 minutes later, they arrived at this steep cliff that they had to climb down. As Lich was taking out his rope crafted out of spider silk, the DF decided to give them a hard time by having some sort of massive bug monster attack them.

Pyrrha rolled out of its swooping attack before taking another look at the monster. This was her first time seeing an enemy that wasn't a Grimm. It looked to be a gigantic wasp that was vibrant in the colors of green and orange with a massive stinger in its abdomen.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Lich yelled before he was almost hurled from the cliffside as the wasp suddenly changed directions and bashed into him. Luckily, he was able to grab on to the edge, but it was an awkward hold on the edge so he was losing his grip.

"Hold on! I'm coming!" Pyrrha began running toward Lich to drag him back up. She put down her weapon and shield to pull him up.

"No! Stay away!" It was too late because Pyrrha was grabbed by the wasp and carried off with Pyrrha struggling to break from its grasp. The wasp tried to sting Pyrrha, but her aura was able to block it until the wasp spat at Pyrrha with some sort of liquid. It was some sort of acid as it began eating away at her skin causing a scream to erupt from Pyrrha, and the box switched from recharging her aura to the acid wound. As a result, Pyrrha's aura soon shattered, and the sting punctured her skin. She began losing control of her limbs as the paralysis set in. Thankfully, she had Lich's box so she would survive, but the box couldn't multitask very well. The more wounds she suffered the slower she healed. At the moment, she was stung five times and had acid searing into her skin. She wasn't healing this any time soon.

As Pyrrha hung limply from the wasp's grasp due to the sting's toxin, she heard cussing and crashes from beneath her. Since she lost control of her limbs, she looked around with her eye movements until at the corner of the eye, she saw Lich following the wasp… actually, it was more of him being dragged by it.

It appeared that there was some rope around the wasp's abdomen, and Lich was attached to the rope. Lich apparently screwed something up because he was currently tangled up by the rope and crashing into whatever was in the path of the wasp. She managed to see Lich get dragged through steaming tar and then hitting some sort of feathered Grimm before she lost sight of Lich. If Pyrrha had control of her facial muscles, she would wince after witnessing what Lich just went through.

After flying for a while, the wasp reached some sort of nest and crawled into one of the openings. As the wasp entered the tunnel, she heard a rope snap and a crash. Pyrrha could feel the control of her limbs returning, but she still couldn't move very well. The wasp deposited her beside a tarantula Grimm before crawling away.

Pyrrha eyed the Grimm, but it appeared something was wrong with it since it had no interest in her. Instead, it was shivering as if it was on its death throes. Seconds began ticking by as the box worked overtime to purge the poison from Pyrrha's body. Soon she was able to shakily crawl away from the Grimm until she heard some watery crunching from the spider. All of a sudden, multiple pale worms about the size of her leg burst from the spider and started some sort of feeding orgy on the Grimm. How they were eating the Grimm, Pyrrha had no idea, and she did not care.

As she slowly dragged herself away from the worms and the spider, she grabbed this ledge, but it was weaker than she thought because it tore up with a large rip and a shudder ran through the nest. Pyrrha slowly turned her head to look behind her and a strangled squeal of fright escaped from her mouth at the sight that greeted her.

The worms had stopped feeding on the spider, and _every single worm_ had popped out of the body and was pointing their fleshy red mouth at Pyrrha. A tense moment passed as they stared at Pyrrha before all at once they began inching toward Pyrrha. At the sight of multiple worms swarming towards her, she tried to stand up and run, but her legs failed her as she collapsed once more forcing her to crawl as fast as she possibly could. As she crawled closer and closer to the room's exit, she felt something fleshy clamp down on one of her feet.

A shiver ran up her spine as she looked down to see that one of the worms were fast enough to catch her. Desperately, she tried kicking off the worm, but by then, she got swarmed by the worms. She could feel the worms digging into her, and Pyrrha screamed in pain as they began feasting on her flesh as she desperately tried to fight back against the mucus-covered worms. Just when Pyrrha thought she saw her life flash by, the floor of the nest ripped open as a very pissed off skeleton broke through the floor. Everybody including the worms froze as they pointed their mouth at the intruder.

"I've had it up to here with this stupid…. Okay… that…" Lich made this wide pointing motion with his hands.

"Is a big pile of nope… and I am burning this entire place to the ground this instant." The last thing Pyrrha saw before she fell unconscious was the sight of Lich throwing fire dust grenades everywhere.

She didn't know how long she was unconscious for, but she woke up once more as Lich was making a safe room on the side of a wall. Her entire body hurt, and she hissed with pain with tears pooling at the corner of her eyes as Lich carried her inside. He laid her down, and he quickly took out some sort of rag made out of leaves as well as the tweezer and scalpel from the botfly episode.

"Pyrrha. Can you hear me? Blink twice if you can hear me." Pyrrha complied with Lich's request with a groan of pain as well.

"Okay. Umm… You've got worms inside of your body, and I've got to dig them out. The box can't heal you when you have foreign objects in your body so yeah…" Lich held up his scalpel and tweezers and then placed a thick stick in Pyrrha's mouth.

"You're going to want to bite down on that. This is NOT going to be pretty. I'll try my best, but please understand that I am not a professional… You know what I'll stop talking." Lich then began the arduous process of digging out the worms that were wriggling underneath Pyrrha's skin. The scalpel cutting into Pyrrha wasn't the painful part. It was when Lich grabbed the worm and began pulling it out that Pyrrha's screams rose a whole new octave. Lich had to hold her down in order for him to pull out the worms.

"You can do this Pyrrha. Just a little more." Halfway through the extraction procedure, Pyrrha was starting to get delirious from the pain, and she could no longer hear what Lich was saying. She began screaming all sorts of profanity at Lich as she began shaking and trying to break free from Lich's grasp. When the worm popped out with a sickening pop sound, Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief as the strength poured out of her body.

"Uh… Pyrrha. I hate to break it to you, but we have six more worms to go." When she heard this, Pyrrha's heart froze, and her eyes widened. A small whimper came out of her throat.

"Do you want me to knock you out?" Pyrrha quickly nodded, and she last saw a fist come crashing down on her jaw before she blacked out again.

The next time she gained consciousness she was on a soft bedding of some sort of leaves. Remembering the events before she became unconscious, she quickly checked her body and sighed when she saw her unblemished body. Silently, Pyrrha thanked Lich's soul box for saving her. Rubbing her sore jaw, she rummaged through the pile of stuff in the middle of the room and pulled out the water canteen to take a good long drink out of.

The door opening almost made Pyrrha jump out of her skin, and she sighed when she realized that it was only Lich who came through the door, holding what looked to be replacements for her lost sword and shield. In addition, he definitely looked like he has seen better days. Apparently, he must have been dragged through some sort of acid because his entire chest plate was missing and half of his helmet was melted off. In addition, it seems that Lich couldn't rip off all the tar and feathers since his skeleton still had some on his ribs and skull.

With a groan, Lich faceplanted on the floor and stayed silent. Not even looking up, Lich slid the weapons over to Pyrrha and continued to simply stay on the floor face down. The silence continued for some time as Pyrrha tested out her new weapons. It was Lich who broke the awkward atmosphere.

"I'm not going to ask if you are alright since you most likely aren't. I am going to ask if you need some help." There was a small pause before Lich heard sniffing sounds. He looked up to see Pyrrha crying. He slowly stood up and gave Pyrrha a small hug. He looked down at his body and lamented that he would never give a proper hug, but it seems that Pyrrha didn't care at all.

They stayed in that position for a couple minutes before Lich pulled away and stared at Pyrrha. "We are going to get out of here in one piece and alive. No matter what. You are a strong girl. Remember that."

Pyrrha only answered, "I _hate_ the DF. In fact, I think Deadly Floor is more of an understatement."

"Yeah. It kind of is. It's only going to get harder though. Rest up. It's too late to try and go to the next safe zone right now. We'll continue onwards tomorrow morning. If you need me, just ask."

"Lich. Those feathers on top of your skull make you look like a chicken."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello! Sorry for the late update. I couldn't find the time to write until recently. I hope you enjoy the new chapter.**

"… So then I told my friend, we probably should have thought this through before booking it as far as we could from the rabid fox." Pyrrha laughed at Lich's stories of his childhood on Earth as their mount slowly traversed the forest beneath them occasionally crushing a couple Grimm. Surprisingly, they were able to find an almost complete skeleton of some sauropod dinosaur so Lich reanimated it. As a result, the last few rooms have gone by in a breeze because they were high above most dangers. Other flying monstrosities have been taken care of by Lich's magic or Pyrrha's magnetic abilities. The ride was still a bit shaky because one of the legs wasn't complete, but it was enough.

To pass the time, Pyrrha and Lich found themselves sharing funny childhood stories. It was mainly Lich who had the most stories to share. Pyrrha's childhood was mainly about training to be a huntress resulting in Lich asking if she was a child soldier once more which she vehemently denied. Pyrrha was about to comment on Lich's story before she spotted something charging towards them at a speed that was kicking up a massive dust cloud.

"Lich. We've got something coming towards us." Lich turned his skull to look at the direction that Pyrrha was pointing. Lich never repaired his armor so he swapped it out for a simple cloak once more. Titanium wasn't an easy metal to work with even with his magic so he was unable to find the time to create a new helmet and chest plate. In addition, he no longer had any reason to hide his body anymore so he did away with his armor.

"I've got it." At those words, Lich shot out a massive barrage of fireballs that soared into the distance aimed at whatever Grimm was charging towards them. The height advantage from their skeletal ride was a big bonus to Lich's magic since he could now see the enemy from a distance that he could bombard AOE spells at. Any Grimm that got close to their ride was eliminated through Pyrrha's iron storm.

"You know this is so much easier. We should have gotten this skeleton a lot sooner." Lich did his best attempt at snorting before replying that he wished the same thing. So far in their journey, they were able to encounter multiple dinosaur skeletons, but none were complete enough to warrant reanimation. After all, a velociraptor skeleton would be pretty useless if it had no legs. Any skeletons without a skull acted like a headless chicken. As a result, it was a huge stroke of luck for the duo to find their current ride. A cold wind blew over the two, and Pyrrha began shivering.

"Is something wrong?" Pyrrha stared at Lich in confusion until she remembered that his sense of touch was heavily impaired.

"Just a cold wind that blew through. You would think that it is… winter…" Pyrrha's words slowed down as she saw snow come drifting down. Snow? Pyrrha looked up at the insanely high ceiling floor. How can there be snow underground? She looked toward Lich, but she couldn't tell if he was surprised or not. Then again, his face doesn't tell much since he has no facial muscles, but he showed none of the other gestures that he made when he was surprised.

"Lich?"

"Uhh. First time with snow. I know that the caverns can 'rain' with water leaking through the ceiling, but this is the first time that _snow_ appeared." With those words, he began staring at the top of the massive room with his empty eye sockets. How Lich was still able to see, hear, or do anything with just a skeleton was baffling to Pyrrha.

"Is there something you need?" Lich noticed that Pyrrha was staring at him.

"I was just wondering if you can breathe without a lung."

"I don't know. Can't really feel the air. I know that I don't need to breathe since I tested it by jumping under water. Wanna test it?" Pyrrha nodded as she put her hand near Lich's teeth and nasal holes. As Lich 'breathed' out, she felt a small breeze come from the opening. Pyrrha shook her hand at the insanity of Lich's body and sat back down on the spine of their skeletal ride.

"Your body is really weird." Lich's answer was a mere shrug before he went back to staring at their surroundings of trees. Pyrrha began shivering as the temperature continued to drop around them. She wasn't really clothed for the sudden temperature change.

Lich noticed Pyrrha's predicament before beckoning to Pyrrha to come under his cloak. It wasn't that hard to fit in since Lich was mainly empty space, and after a few minutes, Lich's bones began radiating some sort of heat.

"Is it working? I can't really feel the heat so I don't know if I did it right." Pyrrha answer was to snuggle even closer to Lich's rib cage so he assumed that he was doing it properly.

"You know. It feels weird being inside you like this." Lich looked down and saw that Pyrrha's head was where his heart was supposed to be.

"Don't break anything please." Pyrrha laughed at the absurdity of the current situation as the snow continued to slowly pile up around them.

"You know. This reminds me of this time I went camping with this Huntsman. It was snowing, and we were next to this fire, and he would tell me stories of how he went around killing Grimm and helping villages." Lich glanced at Pyrrha's expression as she was reminiscing about some memories.

"I think that is an indirect way of asking me to continue telling you some stories, right?" Pyrrha playfully punched Lich's sternum for his directness.

"Do you have any stories?"

"I don't have much more about my childhood or my college years. I was a pretty quiet person who was more interested in academic pursuits. I didn't really play around that much. Any funny stories about me during college was either me getting drunk or fucking up a lab project. Other than that, I sort of played it safe. Nothing too crazy. If anything, you had a far more exciting childhood than me with you shooting freaking miniguns to mow down a Beowolf pack." Lich nudged Pyrrha as he said that with Pyrrha glaring at him.

"I told you that _that_ was an entire accident. I'm pretty sure I told you that I got into huge trouble for that."

"Yes. You had to clean the toilets for an entire week, and that week was the day people ate meat went bad." Pyrrha began shuddering at the memory.

"Even so, my point still stands. Even though your life might seem boring to you, to me at least, it is simply fascinating. Almost as if you came from out of this fantasy story, and I have read a lot." Pyrrha raised her eyebrow at his claim.

"Oh really? Then why don't you know of the most basic myths that any toddler should know about?" Lich stared at Pyrrha before answering, "I think we both know the answer to that Pyrrha."

Pyrrha's small smile disappeared. She didn't want to really think too deeply about it because it simply didn't make sense. However, Lich's lack of knowledge of the most basic things could only be explained by one thing. "You're not from Remnant."

"100 points to Pyrrha. No. I'm not from your world." They both became silent and continued to watch the snow slowly drift around them. Their cave room was covered by this massive blanket of white snow providing a calm atmosphere.

"Are you an alien?" Lich tilted his head as he pondered the question.

"I was and hopefully still is a human. Other than that, I probably am an alien in your terms. Wasn't born in this world after all. Where I come from there is no Grimm, no aura, no Dust. We have stories about something similar, but that is all they are. Simply stories and works of fiction."

"Sounds peaceful."

"Not really. Still have wars. No Grimm means no need for humans to work together so lots of wars in my world's history. Thankfully, I was born in a country that wasn't at war so I got to live a peaceful life. Okay. This weather is just ridiculous. Snow in a cavern is just stupid." Lich began shaking his cloak so the piling snow could fall off from his shoulders.

"But it's a nice change of scenery. It's really peaceful and almost makes you forget that you are in a cave filled with blood-thirsty monsters." Pyrrha took that moment to sneeze as a cold breeze blew by.

"Sorry I can't make you any thick clothes for you. If only there was a big hairy warm animal nearby that we could cut open and stick our heads inside." Lich chuckled with amusement when Pyrrha's eyes widened at the suggestion.

"No! I am not… Oh, you were joking." She began mumbling something under her breath about how difficult it was to tell if Lich was joking at times because of how absurd many of his ideas tended to be.

"You know. If we just had a campfire right now, this reminds me of that time in which my friends and I went to this cabin during the winter for a skiing trip. We got stuck inside since there was a blizzard, and we got drunk off some booze and started singing songs."

"Are you a good singer?"

"Oh hell no. I suck. I can play a couple instruments, but my vocal cords weren't really singing chords. I sound like a dying donkey."

"Oh, it can't be that bad. Oh, I know. You should totally sing right now! It's not like we have anything better to do, and we are pretty safe up here." Lich shook his head in refusal, but Pyrrha was not taking no for an answer. She did her best attempts at puppy eyes, and it eventually worked.

"Fine. Enjoy your puppy eyes while it lasts. Once you're older, you'll lose them." With a huff of annoyance, Lich began pondering what song he should sing. Eventually, he decided to sing "My Demons" from Star set. As he began singing, music began playing from Lich's skeletal body to match his singing.

As Pyrrha sat on Lich's pelvis listening to his song, she had to say that his voice wasn't that bad. Yes, it was off-tune at times and probably off by an entire octave at certain parts, but he conveyed the message quite well. It also helped that he allowed his magic to play music that went along with his singing to mask his mistakes. At the end of the song, Pyrrha began clapping.

"That was great! Yeah, it needs improvement, but it wasn't a dying donkey!" Lich stared at Pyrrha to see if she was making fun of him. In the end, he shrugged and decided to accept the praise.

"Do you know of any songs from Remnant?" This time it was Pyrrha's turn to think for a second before she decided to sing an old nursery song.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star." Lich's head snapped up as he recognized the lyrics. It was a popular song from Earth as well. So, he decided to sing along with Pyrrha as well.

"How I wonder what you are." This time it was Pyrrha who was surprised at Lich's knowledge of the lyrics. However, Pyrrha did not stop and sang the next line.

"Up above the world so high." As the snow came pouring down on the two, they began singing an old song that seemed to exist in both their worlds. With the wind picking up their voices and spreading it throughout the room, the duo poured their hearts and souls into their singing so that it blended into a beautiful harmony that stood in contrast to their bleak environment.

"… How I wonder. What. You. Are..." With the end of the song, the two burst into laughter at the coincidence.

"You have the song at your world too?" The two asked the same question at the same time.

"Jinx." Pyrrha rolled her eyes before replying that 'jinx' was such an old joke. Nobody on Remnant did it anymore. Of course, it made Lich feel old, but he quickly bounced back from the passive jab. After that, the two got into a heated discussion over possible songs they might now. Surprisingly, the two worlds shared many popular folk songs and nursery songs with some name changing here and there.

"Even in a completely different world, it turns out we share a lot of songs as well. I want to say what a small world, but I don't think that's the proper words for this case." As they got closer to the wall, they were forced to end their conversation. Sadly, it was now time to dismount and leave behind their beloved skeletal mount. The entrance to the next room was a small corridor, and the skeleton wouldn't fit through. After a small sentimental goodbye to their beloved sauropod, Lich deactivated his magic. As the bones began falling to the ground, the two had already disappeared into the corridor.

Once they got into a safe zone, Lich lit a fire for Pyrrha to warm up next to while he took out the maps and began looking over their route. Because of their mount, they were able to cover a huge amount of distance since they were able to avoid many fights. As he began recalculating the times, he couldn't help but let out a whoop of joy.

"What's with the sudden happiness?"

"We only have three more days of traveling before we leave this god-forsaken asshole of a floor!" At his declaration, Pyrrha couldn't help but squeal in delight. She was absolutely sick of the DF. Ever since she first entered the DF, she lost count of all the times she has almost died from parasites to gigantic Grimm that almost ate her whole to _slimes_. Pyrrha shivered at her memory of the slimes. Funnily, it seemed that Lich was more traumatized by the slimes than she was. Either way, it was not a good memory.

To celebrate the massive amount of progress they made, Lich let his music run wild as he danced around the room. Pyrrha began clapping along as she chewed on her dried fish and sipped from her water bottle. Once Lich spent a good amount of time making a fool of himself, he dragged Pyrrha to her feet so that he wasn't dancing by himself. Eventually, Pyrrha got tired as she plopped down and slept. Sadly, her dreams were far from festive.

She dreamt that she was riding a pale horse with three other riders. They were hooded so she couldn't see their faces, but their horses were quite colorful: a red, black, and white horse. They were traversing through the forest, and when they exited the cover of the trees, Pyrrha couldn't help but gasp in shock at the sight that greeted her.

They stopped at a cliff, and Pyrrha had a wide view of destroyed cities and villages. All of them were burning with people getting killed left and right from Grimm and skeletons. It was as if the apocalypse has arrived on Remnant. She saw the numerous academies burning in the distance, and the sky ran red with blood as a chorus of a million throats cried out in despair and fear. She and the other three riders watched the destruction without a word.

Pyrrha desperately wanted to jump off her horse and rush down to help the people suffering, but her body wouldn't move for some reason. Eventually, the other three horsemen got their fill of the devastation and began galloping off somewhere else.

They next came to a stop in front of a battle. A lone figure wreathed in the dark shadows of grief and pain were fighting off four maidens. The red one wielded a scythe, the white one had a rapier, the yellow one wore gauntlets, and the black one carried a katana. It was a brutal battle with neither side giving in. When Pyrrha looked closer, she noticed that the dark figure was guarding something.

The person was guarding a contraption of some sort, and there were four items surrounding a… beating heart. Suddenly, the room began shaking as massive waves of energy could be felt from the four items as they poured in their magic into the heart. Realizing this, the four maidens fought even harder, trying to get past the figure.

With a shake of their heads, the maidens quickly communicated a plan. The yellow and the black charged at the figure. The yellow tried to punch the figure only for her to get countered with a massive swipe of some dark power, a trail of blood following after her. However, the yellow's partner was able to get behind the figure and got a rope on the figure's neck and attempted to pull down the figure to no effect. She was quickly countered by a massive electric current that ran down the rope and into her body.

However, it was the distraction needed for the white maiden to freeze the figure, and the red maiden to dash past the figure with a clear path to the heart. The figure managed to melt the ice and tried to stop the red maiden with a massive wave of darkness. It was too late in the end as the scythe got closer and closer to the heart.

During that moment, Pyrrha and the other three riders were circling the conflict. She could hear whispering from the other three, but she could not discern what they were talking about. It sounded like a bunch of gibberish to Pyrrha. Eventually, the other three riders came to a conclusion and began trotting over to the red maiden and the heart with Pyrrha following close behind. Eventually, she saw them come to a stop next to the heart. As the scythe came closer and closer to its target, they once more began whispering amongst each other before they came to an agreement of some sort. Pyrrha did not know of what came next because she woke up with a cold sweat running down her back.

She looked around, but it was only a room with Lich over to the opposite corner sitting down and a fire in the center sending up flickering flames. It was only a dream, albeit a weird one.

"Nightmare?" Pyrrha shook her head before responding, "Just a weird dream."

Lich merely nodded before going back to simply sitting in his corner. It marveled Pyrrha at how he could sit and stand in one place for such a long period of time. When Pyrrha inquired about it, he merely said that he had a lot of practice going into this trance in which time seemed to just zoom by. It replicated sleeping, but it was not quite sleeping. His time in the caverns had forced upon him the harsh lessons of patience and waiting.

"You still have a couple more hours before the magma comes back. You should go back to sleep." Pyrrha shook her head. She wasn't going back to sleep after that weird dream and decided to spend the remaining time polishing her weapons. This was probably her fifth weapon by now. The predecessors were either lost or melted.

Afterward, she began practicing the finer points of her semblance with a couple of iron balls. While she was practicing, Lich crafted this tub and began filling it with water for Pyrrha to take a bath in. Hygiene was important after all even if they were traversing the DF. Lich gestured to Pyrrha for her to check the temperature a couple of times before she began stripping off her clothes and jumped in. After going through so many close calls with Lich, she doesn't care at all if Lich saw her naked. They both had more important things to worry about.

As Pyrrha slowly lowered herself into the warm water, she chuckled at the times her embarrassment almost got her killed. During the beginning parts of their travels, Pyrrha insisted on going to the bathroom a small distance away from Lich. It turned out to be a near fatal mistake because a Grimm took that moment to ambush her. Ever since then, she did not care about going to the bathroom right next to Lich. Safety was a priority. Of course, he still turned around to give her some privacy whenever she went. Even now, Lich was looking the other way while she was bathing. He repeatedly told her that he had no wish to be labeled as a pedophile. However, bath time wasn't bath time if Lich didn't poke fun at Pyrrha.

"Would you like some rubber ducks?" Pyrrha's answer was a splash to the back of Lich, but due to his lack of touch, he wasn't really annoyed by being wet.

"Instead I want you to sing a bit more. Your voice isn't that bad. It would beat the dead silence." Lich merely laughed and humored Pyrrha's request. The rest of the night was a simple singing contest between the Greek-themed girl and the walking skeleton.

As soon as the magma came back, the duo once more resumed their journey. The corridor widened into a massive rainforest room; however, there was one thing missing.

"Can you hear anything?" Pyrrha shook her head as well. It was quiet. There was no growling of the Grimm, the clicking of the bugs, or even footsteps. There was simply silence, unnerving silence.

"Alright. I don't like this one bit." With those words, Lich took out a spider silk rope and began tying it around his waist. Pyrrha took the other end and copied Lich. Anytime the two got into very uncomfortable situations in the DF, they decided to tie a rope around each other so they wouldn't get separated very easily. It was Lich's idea in order to avoid any horror movie 'cliché' traps as he put it.

With that, they entered the forest. Plants, plants, and more plants filled their vision. They had no need to hide from any monsters or Grimm because there were none. However, the lack of monsters only increased their wariness. The DF was not called the Deadly Floor for no reason.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." Pyrrha found herself glaring at Lich once more. "Yes. I know! You said this like 50 times already!"

Pyrrha quickly covered her mouth, but it was too late as her shout shattered the silence and a slight echo could be heard. Lich mockingly clapped his hands while Pyrrha threw a massive stick at Lich which he effortlessly dodged. They once more trudged onwards until Lich suddenly put his hands up and signaled for a stop.

"What's going on?" Pyrrha couldn't see anything worth stopping for.

"That tree… It just moved." Lich pointed at this tree covered in green vines.

"Then we just go around it. It's not the first tree we saw move."

"No. That's not what I meant. The tree itself moved, not just the branches."

Pyrrha stared hard at the tree not taking her eyes off it. "You're telling me that the tree _walked?_ "

"Yes. I don't know how, but it moved slightly to the left." If this was anyone other than Lich, Pyrrha would have simply said that the person must have been hallucinating or was simply jumping at shadows due to the stress. However, this was Lich. A person who has lots of practice entering the DF. He did not make mistakes like this. If he saw the tree move, it moved.

"What do we do?"

"Do you think we can risk a forest fire?" Lich cupped his hands around his mandible.

"I don't think the fire will be very effective with how humid it is right now." To make her point, Pyrrha pointed at the dew covering much of the leaves.

"Then let's go around that tree. Far around. Keep an eye on…" Lich did not finish before something pulled on his leg and began dragging him away. Since there was a rope connecting the two of them, Pyrrha was pulled along with him. Trying to stop their movement, Pyrrha quickly braced herself on a tree with fruit hanging off of it. Fruit…

Quickly, Pyrrha rolled away from the tree as the branches began viciously hammering down in her direction. The force pulling on Lich helped her dodge; however, it was now pulling on them faster and faster. After a couple seconds, there was a resounding thunk, and the two quickly came to a stop.

"What was that?!" Pyrrha helped Lich up as she questioned him about the sudden drag.

"A freaking vine got me. It was tough enough to resist being cut by my sword, and I didn't want to know where the damn vine leads to so I cut off my foot." With those words, he showed off his leg with the missing limb.

"Does it hurt?" Lich shook his head for a negative. "It feels weird, but it's alright. If my body ever gets destroyed, I'll just get a new one again cause I can't die! I'll just endure this until you get home. Until then…"

Lich used his magic to recreate a new skeleton foot made of steel. While he was working, Pyrrha made sure to keep a lookout for any suspicious plants or vines.

"There. Perfect!" Lich quickly attached it to his anklebones and gave it a twirl. It wasn't as responsive as his skeleton foot, but it was good enough. He looked up to see Pyrrha gone and a piece of frayed rope at the end.

"Oh, fucking hell!"

He looked around to see a massive Venus fly trap-shaped plant trying to run away by swinging from tree to tree with its vines. Sticking out of the mouth was a pair of legs that was kicking frantically. Lich was stunned at the bizarre sight before he quickly snapped out of his stupor and gave chase.

In order to keep up with the fleeing plant, Lich had to create vines of his own made of darkness and began following the carnivorous plant as fast as he could. He tried to hit it with his spells, but it dodged each one with ease. Eventually, Lich was forced to hope for the best and hit the surroundings of the fleeing plant with a massive fire nova that blasted the plant apart and bathed the nearby trees with a searing flame. He quickly ran up to Pyrrha and found her on the ground covered in an enzymatic fluid with a dazed look.

"A plant. A plant tried to eat me and run away, and it covered me with its nasty smelling spit." Lich handed her a bottle of water which she used to try and wash away the slime from her head. Lich's box began healing up any burns that Pyrrha had suffered. With a sigh, she stood back up.

"Add plants to the list of things that almost killed me." Lich merely nodded before he was smacked to the side by a massive branch. It seems all the plants in the surrounding area were not pleased with Lich's stunt.

While Lich was being punted around by branches and vines, Pyrrha quickly activated her metal storm to begin cutting up every single piece of plant that got near her. It was effective as the plants quickly withdrew from Pyrrha's makeshift weed whacker, and Lich came to a crashing halt in front of Pyrrha.

"Wow. Who knew that plants had an attitude like that."

"Oh, my Monty! Lich!" Lich was an absolute mess with every single one of his limbs bent in the wrong direction, and multiple ribs were missing or fractured. His skull was split in half with one part of the skull dangerously close to simply falling off.

"Well, would you look at that. Do you mind resetting me? Use some muds to fix the cracks. I'll take care of the rest." Pyrrha quickly began following Lich's instruction. It wasn't the first time she had to reset Lich's skeleton.

"Thank yo…" Lich was cut off by a massive thump behind him. He turned around to see this massive tree in the shape of a human. Pyrrha quickly used her storm in an attempt to cut apart the tree monster, but the bark was too strong. It ended up with half her shards embedding itself into the tree, and no matter how hard she pulled with her semblance, the shards would not pop out of the bark.

"This is not good." Pyrrha began slowly backing away from the monstrosity.

"Why am I not surprised? Every single room we went through in this fucking floor just won't give us a break. It's as if that it needs to try to kill us multiple times in a row." Lich began grumbling as he warily began standing up and moving backward like Pyrrha. The tree monster slowly opened its eyes to reveal its lack of eyes. There were only empty eye sockets instead.

"Now that is fucking creepy." Lich quickly raised his hands to shoot out a stream of fire, but the monster took it as if it was only tickling it. There wasn't even a burn mark on the bark.

"Well, this is just perfect. First, plants that can run away, and now plants that are now resistant to fire. Just fucking perfect." In response, the tree opened its gaping mouth and shaped it into a smile. At the creepy sight, Pyrrha was the first to run for it. Lich quickly followed after sinking the monster's foot into the ground with a spell. It didn't even slow the plant titan down.

"Handhandhandhand." Lich desperately yelled hoping that Pyrrha heard him. Her response was to drop down on the ground and roll to the side as a massive bark covered hand scooped up the ground that she was just on. She tried to retaliate by chopping the finger with her sword, but it only got stuck. Colorfully cursing, Pyrrha jumped back up and began sprinting off while Lich tried to distract the big monster with an electric current. The monster's response was to pick up an entire fruit tree by ripping it out of the ground and tossed it at Lich.

Immediately, Lich went into evasive mode as he crouched down and did backflips and twists as he tried to dodge the branches that were wildly swinging at Lich. When a branch swung for his head, he grabbed it and used its momentum to fling himself toward the monster and head-butted the massive walking tree in the face. It only resulted in Lich getting his head stuck in the bark right between the eye sockets. The tree's response? It began punching Lich. The good news was that it was punching itself. The bad news was that Lich was between the tree's forehead and its punches.

There was a massive explosion as Lich blew up with a massive fire spell on himself. Lich was sent hurtling away while the tree fell backward with a soundless scream. Lich's spell tore the bark from the tree's forehead revealing the softer inner wood beneath the rough bark. Realizing her chance, Pyrrha used the remainder of her steel shards to drive them into the opening sending up a massive plume of wood shavings into the air killing the giant tree.

She quickly ran toward where Lich landed and found Lich desperately trying to defend himself from other plants with his broken body. Pyrrha quickly took care of the small fry with her shield's edge to cut them apart.

"It's about time that you killed a massive monster." Pyrrha smiled at Lich's words.

"Yeah. It is about time."


	10. Chapter 10

**I changed the title because the previous title didn't really fit in with the original intent of the story anymore. At first, my intent was how Lich was struggling with suicidal tendencies regarding his undead state, but with how the story is progressing, Lich is turning out to be a character who has given up with everything and is simply existing: "a skeleton" of his former self. So I decided to change the title to** ** _Pyrrha Meets a Lich_** **. Is it creative? Hell no. Does it describe the story better? …. I think? Also, I managed to reach 10 chapter with this story! On my first attempt at fanfiction no less. At first, I thought it was going to be something of a one-shot, but it seemed there were quite a number of people who liked this story judging by the number of favorites and followers that I decided to continue with this story with even some reviews. Thank you to anyone who managed to reach this far!**

"… Calling out your name…" Lich ended the "Call Your Name" song with a lingering note as Pyrrha was walking alongside listening to his singing. They have recently reached the desert room which was practically devoid of everything. No Grimm, no monsters, no plants, and only sand could be seen. Sand dunes after sand dunes and Pyrrha was getting quite sick of sand getting everywhere. Of course, Lich wouldn't mind since he has no flesh so no sense of touch, but it was an annoying sensation to Pyrrha.

"Hold on." Pyrrha came to a stop as she took off her shoe and began tapping out the sand that has gotten in through the numerous holes and tears that saturated her shoe. In response, Lich held up his skeleton foot and watched the sand trickle out of the cracks and crevices of his skeleton body. Pyrrha took a couple sips of water from her canteen before continuing on.

"Lich. I just realized. Aren't you kind of walking around completely nude right now?" Lich's cloak recently fell apart due to the battering and stress it has endured finally catching up. It was now no better than a piece of rag so Lich threw it away. As a result, he was walking around with nothing but his skeleton body which wasn't saying much since he had nothing to show off after all. Lich's response was to only shrug and gestured for Pyrrha to keep walking.

They continued with their trek over the numerous sand dunes in silence for Lich had run out of songs to sing. The magma continued to bare its heat down onto the two with Pyrrha taking the worst of it for she still had flesh. The heat made her dizzy and tired far quicker than it should have. She did not want to use her aura to increase her endurance just yet because the lack of any enemies in sight made her want to save her aura for when she really needed to use it.

Pyrrha soon grew sick of seeing simply sand. Surprisingly, she began wishing to see the trees from the previous rooms once more. Anything else to see other than simply yellow sand dunes would be perfect. She even wished that enemies would come to attack them just so it would combat a bit of her boredom. It was a weird feeling to be walking through a room in the DF that had no enemies.

While she was panting from the ridiculous heat, she saw an oasis in the distance. A pool of water that was awfully inviting for her poor overheated body. She pointed at the oasis before taking a step in the oasis' direction when she felt a hand stop her. Lich shook his head and stated that it was merely a mirage. Begrudgingly, Pyrrha obeyed.

As they continued on in the harsh desert room, the DF was not making the trip easy for them. Although the room was not throwing monster after monster at them, it was tormenting Pyrrha with heat and the possibility of an ambush hanging over their heads. It was for this reason that they were tied together for this room as well. If there were no enemies in sight, it only meant that there were enemies in ambush, waiting for them to let their guard down.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Pyrrha kept her eyes peeled for anything that wasn't sand. Or sand that was on the ground. She elbowed Lich and pointed at a massive cloud of sand coming at them.

"Is that a mirage or is something coming at us?" Lich looked at what Pyrrha was pointing at before saying the f-word.

"That looks like a sandstorm." Lich immediately began pouring his magic into the ground to harden the sand into a dome around them, but the sand was unyielding at first. It turned out that the sand had a high metallic content so it was harder for Lich to manipulate it like ordinary soil. As a result, it would take far more time for his magic to take effect. The best Lich could do before the sandstorm hit was to erect a wall in the direction of the sandstorm, and Pyrrha put up a dome of metal shaving around the open areas.

When the sandstorm blew over them, the sand began pouring in through the small gaps of the iron dome, and the wall shook from the high winds, but it thankfully held. The lighting in their makeshift shelter drastically fell simulating night time for them.

"How are you holding up?" Pyrrha grimaced before cautiously nodding her hands as she poured her aura into her semblance. Noticing Pyrrha's struggle, Lich doubled his efforts into finishing the dome. It took Lich 20 minutes to complete the shelter when it would have taken only five seconds if it was regular soil.

"Well, it seems we are stuck here for the time being." As soon as Lich said those words, Pyrrha let out a groan of relief as she released her semblance and collapsed on the sand floor. Trying to keep her shards from getting blown away was no easy task after all.

"Remind me how many more rooms do we have?" Lich took out his map to answer Pyrrha's question.

"Well, tomorrow will be the last day of the DF, and this room is the last normal room before we get into this mess of squiggles and holes that my scouts drew. I have no idea what it means, but probably something crazy for the last room. I think this room represents the calm before the storm so to speak."

"Great. What's my record for almost dying in one day again?" Lich scratched his lower jaw before answering, "40. It was _that_ room."

Pyrrha shivered as she remembered that room. She used to look down on girls that screamed when cockroaches and other creepy crawly insects appeared. Now she was one of those girls that she used to look down on. Cockroaches were no laughing matter when they were five times bigger than you and retained their almost immortal traits.

"I pray to Monty that the final part of the floor isn't that room again." Pyrrha breathed a sigh of tiredness. "So, I'll probably break my record at the final stretch of the DF then."

"Most likely." Lich nodded in sympathy before the duo went into a state of depressing silence. Lich tried to quickly think of a different subject to wipe away the atmosphere.

"What type of boy do you like?" Pyrrha raised her eyebrow at the question.

"Really?"

"Sorry. I was just trying to blow away the atmosphere."

"I thought we already established that you suck at doing that."

"What? No…"

"You once asked me if I ate guinea pig before. A guinea pig. One of the cutest animals in existence."

"In my defense, in my world, there were countries that ate guinea pigs." Pyrrha only glared harder at Lich with Lich shrugging off the glare with the 'I don't care' expression that a dead body possesses. Eventually, she gave a shrug before answering with an "I don't know."

"Seriously? You don't know. You haven't thought about boys or talked about boys with your best friend before?"

"Well, we do, but I haven't thought about it myself. Also, one of my friends is into girls, not boys." Lich leaned back in surprise.

"Is the parents okay with that?" This time it was Pyrrha to raise her eyebrows in surprise.

"Why? Is there something wrong with a girl liking a girl? It's common in Remnant. Is it not the same for your world?"

"Ah… No. Straight out banned in many places in the world. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen in my world. There is growing support for it with some countries allowing it, but it has pretty stiff resistance depending on the population."

"Oh… that's sad. Not being able to love someone because of laws."

"Eh. That issue is a mess in my old world. Your world is quite progressive compared to mine regarding that area. Was your world always like that or was there some sort of movement to legalize it?"

"No. It was always like that as far as I know."

"Seriously? Like no murdering people because they were gay and stuff like that?"

"Uhm… None that I can think of. Were people seriously murdered for being gay in your world?"

"Yes… On the bright side, it is slowly changing in some part of the world."

"Did you live in a place that allowed it?"

"Er… It was legalized a couple years before I woke up in the cavern… I think. I'm not sure."

"Wow. That recently?"

"Apparently. It could be quite difficult to get reliable political information because "news" always developed into shit throwing contest between liberals and conservatives who are the two sides of the same coin in my opinion." Lich shook his head at the memories. Some people needed to grow a spine while others needed to be more tolerant. Being a moderate could be quite difficult in polarized environments.

"Did you support it?" Lich tilted his head as he contemplated how to answer it.

"Hmmm. How do I answer this? When I still had a flesh and blood body, I could probably rant about the hypocrisy that existed on both sides of the issue for some time, but now… The best way I can sum it up is I don't know. I have only talked about same-sex issues with other straight people so I had difficulty in getting the full picture. However, whether I like or dislike homosexuals, I was big on tolerance. Who am I to tell someone else who to marry? It might go against what I personally believe, but as long as no one is harmed, tolerance is important to me. That doesn't mean you'll find me reading stories with gay couples as the lead like yaoi. Those stories are weird, but hey, _tolerance_." As Lich said the final word, he lifted his hands in the air and made a rainbow gesture. Pyrrha laughed at Lich's gesture.

After that, the rest of the conversation flew from favorite food to pets. The atmosphere cleared up, and Lich was once more happy to engage in conversation with another talking person. It made him feel alive in a way. The sandstorm continued for the entire day until it was time for the magma to start receding. Lich peeked out his head and shook it at the sight.

"It seems that we'll have to stay in here for a bit longer. It's turning into night time." As there was no wood nearby, the duo had to make do with the dim lights that shone from the fungi that hung from the extremely high ceiling.

"Lich. It's getting cold." Pyrrha shivered as a cloud of water vapor escaped her mouth. Lich began heating up his bones with magic as Pyrrha sat on his pelvis and put her head in his rib cage.

"This again. Huh."

"It's not as comfortable as it looks." Pyrrha shifted her weight around as she tried to adjust herself to find a comfortable spot. Eventually, she finds the perfect spot as she leaned her head back and went to sleep. Lich stayed still. Very still. As he carefully watched over Pyrrha sleeping form, ready to protect her from any who dares attack her even if it meant overusing his dark magic.

At first light of the next day, after a quick breakfast for Pyrrha, they set off. In the morning, the temperatures were quite tolerable, but as the magma gradually filled up to full strength, the heat gradually rose to the unbearable temperatures yesterday. It also didn't help that Lich was seeing some sort of army marching song as 'encouragement' for Pyrrha. It felt like he was instead taunting her considering he doesn't feel tired.

When he switched to singing about some sort of fruitcake, Pyrrha's stomach groaned in protest. It's been too long since she had any sort of sweets. Pyrrha looked down at her body. It was officially pure muscle. She burned off much of her fat in her time in this 'land of the dead'. Or hellhole like Lich liked to call it. As soon as she got to the surface, she was going to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet first. Pile her plates full of nicely seasoned steak, fries, pizza, and all sorts of delicious food. Pyrrha's mouth began to water as she thought of all the food she was going to eat when she reached the surface.

Due to her being lost in thought, she accidentally slipped on an unstable part of the sand dune and began tumbling down into a pit that was in the shape of an upside-down cone. They were tied together so she ended up dragging Lich down as well. Lich took one look at where they were sliding down, and he began panicking desperately trying to punch his skeletal hands and feet into the sand to stop their descent. They were descending too fast for Lich to be able to activate his ground magic due to the peculiar sand.

"Pyrrha! We can't fall to the bottom of this pit!" Without question, Pyrrha used her metal shaving to create massive spikes and smashed them into the sides allowing them to grab on and stop their descent.

"Why? What's wrong?" Pyrrha pulled herself on top of the spike and looked at Lich as she waited for an answer.

"This pit reminds me of how this certain insect in my world got its prey. It made this conical pit with slippery sides so that its prey would fall all the way down to that point where the insect would eat it." Lich pointed at the very bottom point as he explained his concerns. Pyrrha looked down with worry in her face as well.

It was at that moment that the monster hiding under the sand burst into life spraying sand everywhere for it had felt vibrations when Pyrrha jabbed the spikes into the sand. Vibrations meant prey was nearby. It was a giant centipede-worm Grimm with massive mandibles and a mouth filled with jagged teeth. Due to the sudden explosion, the sand became unstable so the spikes lost their effectiveness, and the duo began sliding down closer to the Grimm.

Lich made the first attack as he fired off a stream of fire from one hand and a lightning bolt from the other. The fire and the lightning were ineffective for the Grimm was covered in this thick gooey slime which absorbed most of Lich's spell. Pyrrha was the next to move as she used her metal storm in an attempt to slice up the Grimm. The slime was also very acidic so it simply melted much of the shavings. The Grimm seemed to take its prey's attack in stride as it eagerly awaited them to fall all the way down into its open mouth.

"Finally!" With an annoyed shout, Lich thrust his hands into the sand, and a massive spike of hardened sand burst from underneath him and stabbed the worm straight in the mouth. It pulled back with a massive scream as Lich grabbed Pyrrha and jumped hard enough to leave a massive crater of sand as he rocketed into the air as far away from the Grimm as he could.

Their landing created another crater in the sand dunes as they crashed. Pyrrha's aura flared a deep red as it absorbed much of the energy from the fall while Lich landed awkwardly resulting in his leg separating at the kneecaps. Pyrrha handed one of the legs to Lich while shaking out the sand from her hair freezing when she felt a massive rumbling. She felt a strong shove from her side as the Grimm from before burst out of the sand right where they were standing. Lich began running, carrying Pyrrha over his shoulders like a pack of potatoes.

Trying to run on sand is not easy. Getting carried over the shoulder while the person is running over sand is painful. Once more Pyrrha found herself thankful that she had armor that cushioned Lich's clavicle grinding itself into her stomach. Pyrrha looked up to see an unwelcome sight.

"GOGOGOGOGO!" Pyrrha desperately screamed as the giant worm began chasing after the duo like a centipede.

Since Lich's spells were useless in this situation, it was up to Pyrrha to slow down the Grimm. She did so by using her shield like a boomerang, continuously throwing and bashing the Grimm in the face. It worked, but…

"Pyrrha! What are you doing? It sounds like it is getting angrier!" Lich grunted out as he tried to find footing on the shifting sand dunes.

"Slowing it… Oh, Monty! Dodge! Dodge!" Lich hurled himself to the side, slid down the sand dune, and continued running when he slid to the bottom. He risked a look back and saw a smoking crater behind him.

"What was that?"

"It's doing it again!" This time Lich zigged when he should have zagged, and Pyrrha put up her shield with all of her shards creating a bigger shield in front of them. The resulting explosion threw them forward and sent them tumbling forward. When Lich looked back up, Pyrrha's teary face met his line of sight.

"It can shoot some sort of explosive ball of shit from its ass!"

"Fuck this shit!" Lich quickly pulled up Pyrrha onto her feet, and they both took off running. Pyrrha began using her semblance to create footholds with her shards so she could run faster. It may reduce Pyrrha's amount of aura, but running away from the worm was of higher priority. Lich was light in the first place so he didn't sink into the sand as much, and with help from his wind spells, he was propelling himself forward with every jump blasting sand everywhere.

They kept this up until Pyrrha's aura fizzled out, and Lich's spells overloaded with the worm a concerning distance behind them. Pyrrha's lungs were on fire after running for so long, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep running. Lich wasn't faring much better because of the sand. The sand has gotten into his joints, and the continuous friction from running at high speeds with sand grinding away at his bones have caused his joints to wear out faster resulting in an increased risk of Lich falling apart. As a result, Lich was unable to pick up Pyrrha to pick up their speed.

"It's just a little further!" Lich pointed to the exit which was this small hole in the wall. It was only 30ish meters away. With a mighty roar, Pyrrha began using up the last dregs of her energy to propel herself forward. Just then, the DF had one last middle finger for the two.

It took a while, but Pyrrha noticed that her steps were getting slower and heavier. When she looked down, she noticed that her feet were sinking into the sand with every step. Lich was faring no better. In fact, his skeleton was actually on the verge of falling apart due to the increased burden on his body.

"Shit. Quicksand." Lich knew that Hollywood quicksand was very different from real-life quicksand. Quicksand in real life rarely went over the knees, but the danger lay in exhaustion for trying to escape it. It would be no problem for the two of them to escape if they had access to Lich's magic or Pyrrha's semblance; however, both of their abilities were on cooldown. It would take time for the two of them to escape the quicksand in their state, which was time they did not have.

"Lich. What do we do?" Pyrrha looked with desperation at Lich and back toward the Grimm who was getting closer with every passing second. Her aura has refilled a bit due to the power of the box, but it was not enough for a fight with the worm. He began grinding his teeth so hard that a couple of teeth fell out of place. After a few seconds of thought, he made his decision.

"Pyrrha. Get closer to me. I am going to do something stupid. Hold onto the pack. I need to make myself as light as possible." Lich lied to Pyrrha, but she did not find out. Pyrrha grabbed Lich's pack that had the map and food while she saw Lich slowly pulling his foot out from the quicksand and getting into some sort of stance.

"Uh. Lich. What are you going to do? I thought you were overloaded." Lich merely nodded in response and finished preparing his stance. Pyrrha nervously looked at the worm that was getting bigger with every passing second. It seemed to have picked up their predicament and was eagerly picking up speed.

"Now, I'm going to pick you up. Come here." Pyrrha grabbed onto Lich's shoulders as he hugged her and pulled upwards slowly. She soon became free from the quicksand with a pop and without her shoes.

"Now promise me that you are going to keep running after this. Alright? We might get separated, but you have to keep moving. Promise me that you won't look for me. If anything, I will come to you." Pyrrha looked incredulously at Lich before a shriek from the worm drew her attention.

"Lich! You're going to want to hurry up with what you are going to do!" The worm was very close now, and it was preparing to pounce on them for its body was all scrunched up like a spring.

"Promise me! Promise me that you will go on and that you will not wait for me!"

"Okay. Okay! But you have to promise that you will come to me, alright?!" Lich accepted her promise and nodded his head.

"Okay. Keep that box close to you since it will function as a tracking beacon, and I'm sorry." Pyrrha stared at Lich unsure if she heard him properly.

"You're going to probably finish this journey by yourself now. I don't know if I'll make it in time. No matter what, go on without me. Good luck and make it out alive."

"Wait. What?"

With those words, Lich pulled Pyrrha back and threw her like a lance. The sudden movement caused his hand to break off and get thrown while attached to Pyrrha. Pyrrha felt her body soar through the air, and her aura flared up and shattered as she crashed onto the floor right at the entrance of the small hole. Pyrrha looked back in disbelief and horror. Her last sight of Lich was a sad wave, and the sight of Lich being swallowed by the Grimm as it closed its mouth around him and dived into the ground sending up a massive plume of sand.

"Lich!" With a despairing cry, Pyrrha sank onto her knees and cradled what was left of Lich's body. His skeletal hand which separated when he threw her. Tears flew from her eyes as she held onto the hand as she repeatedly said his name in disbelief at what happened. It happened again. She had to be protected because she was not strong enough. First, it was a Huntsman who had to rescue her from her own foolishness, and this time it was a broken individual who dropped everything to help her go back home.

"Why? Damn it. Why?" She continued asking the question even though deep down she already knew the answer. It was an obvious decision since he had little else to live for. He said so himself numerous times. Even so, it hurt. It hurt that someone else especially someone she cared about had to be hurt at Pyrrha's expense. It was the whole reason why she wanted to be a huntress. It was the whole reason why she wanted to be stronger.

She knew that she would probably never be as strong as Lich, but even so, she trained, she worked out her semblance, and she grew stronger so she wouldn't be a burden to Lich. Even so, it wasn't enough. If Pyrrha wasn't there, she was positive that Lich would have used dark magic to escape that situation. Because of Pyrrha, he doesn't use an entire branch of his magic because of its nasty tendency to mess with Lich and Pyrrha's mental state.

Now, Lich was gone. He sacrificed himself to let her escape. The only thing left was his hand and his box. His box. It was still glowing a comforting black halo around it. Suddenly, she blinked away her tears and stood up grasping at the box. She remembered Lich talking about how he and the box were connected in some way. Maybe Lich was still alive. Maybe he killed the worm while he was inside of it. She considered waiting, but then she remembered Lich's promise. To go on without him. He probably predicted Pyrrha would want to wait for him which would only put her in more danger since the monsters seemed to passively converge on where she was. Their time together allowed each other to get a grasp of how they thought.

Wiping away her tears with her hands, she stood up and began picking up her things. She tied Lich's hand to her hip with her red sash, and she dusted away the sand that stuck to her clothes. With a final look at the desert room and cradling Lich's glowing box, Pyrrha whispered, "You better come back" before continuing onward with a dim hope. The box was still glowing which had to be a good thing.

The final room was an open molten pit of iron. The only way across was these thin pathways of cooled down iron. Cooled down relative to the liquid iron. Pyrrha screamed with tears running down her cheeks as her foot cooked on the metal as it conducted heat straight into her feet as she made her way across. This floor was more of a test of pain endurance than anything else. If it wasn't for Lich's box, she would have died from breathing in the toxic fumes and the first degree burns her bare feet were constantly undergoing. Funny how Lich was protecting her even though he wasn't beside her.

Pyrrha took another hesitant step forward, screaming and crying once more as her foot made contact with the scalding hot metal. The box was already working overtime in healing the wounds that Pyrrha was constantly suffering. Sweat was profusely running down Pyrrha's body, but she was not drenched in sweat because her sweat was evaporating from the heat that was radiating from the molten pit.

To make things worse, the monsters in the final room were persistent. So far, she encountered two types of enemies: a Grimm bat that constantly tried to push her into the pit and lava fish that constantly tried to take a bite out of her every time it jumped out of the molten iron. Because of those damn monsters, Pyrrha's near-death count was already reaching the hundreds on the final floor.

 _341._ Pyrrha begrudgingly thought this as a bat slammed into her back while she was preoccupied with stabbing a bat Grimm that was charging at her from the front. Because of that attack, she almost fell into the molten iron. She managed to regain her balance and stabbed the attacker before it could fly off. She was keeping count of all the times she almost died in this room. It kept her mind off the constant burning sensation of her bare feet.

Due to the constant amount of pain that her feet were undergoing, Pyrrha's focus occasionally wavered. She did not notice a small dip in the iron pathway resulting in her falling. Her elbow made contact with the hot iron floor, and Pyrrha's already sore throat managed to tear out another bloodcurdling scream as her sides came into contact with the scalding floor. She wanted to give up, to simply throw herself into the lava to end the pain of her flesh being constantly cooked, but she could not do it. How could she when Lich had already done so much for her to get this far.

She stood up on shaky legs and tried to parch her dried throat, but her canteen was empty. It seems she unknowingly drank her last drop some time ago. In frustration, she continued on with her march of burning pain dodging the constant harassment of her enemies. After what seemed an eternity of being cooked alive, Pyrrha saw the exit. The exit to the DF. With the exit in sight, a surge of strength ran through Pyrrha as she willed herself forward.

Just then, the floor began rumbling as a massive snake made of lava rose from the molten depths. It flicked its tongue at her as Pyrrha groaned at the additional threat to her life. This room was truly the full wrath of the DF packaged into one room. It wasn't enough that she was in constant pain, it wasn't enough that she was constantly attacked by enemies at every turn, but it also had to add in a mega monster when she was near the end. _542._ Pyrrha begrudgingly added another number onto her increasing near death count as she dodged the rain of molten iron that fell from the snake.

She tried to make a run for the exit, but the snake smashed open a massive gap in her pathway causing her to be blown back. Pyrrha screeched in pain as her back came into contact with the metal. She had to endure even further pain as she was forced to roll away as the snake buried its head at where she was a second before. Pyrrha immediately began thinking of a way to escape her situations. Her weapons were not enough to put a dent in that snake. It would probably absorb all of her shards. Fighting it was not an option. However, her path to escape was cut off.

 _Think? What would Lich do?_ Pyrrha berated herself as she racked her head for an idea to escape. Then, she thought of an idea that Lich would probably be proud of. With a running start, she threw herself onto the molten iron with her shield under her in the direction of the exit. With a splash, the shield managed to stay afloat as Pyrrha used her semblance to guide her shield towards the exit. The snake's movements to try and stop her with a massive wave of molten lava only aided her escape as she soon found herself surfing on a liquid that would kill her should she fall off her melting shield.

She threw herself toward the solid ground when her shield began losing its magnetic abilities due to it melting from the excess heat. Solid ground not scorching hot iron. If Pyrrha had the strength, she would have shouted in victory, but she was too tired to lift her head. Instead, she devoted her dwindling reserves of energy in dragging herself away from the DF towards a hallway that leads upwards. Pyrrha had made it. She was now free from the DF. She was now on the top floor. Seeing no enemies near her, Pyrrha allowed herself to sink into unconsciousness.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for being super late. I was busy with real life matters, and I stumbled upon a writer's block so my first draft was a complete mess. I didn't want to upload a half-assed chapter so I decided to rewrite it. I don't know if this rewrite is better, but I feel more satisfied with it. I know it's not perfect, and there are definitely places that could go with more improvement, but hey, I am not a professional writer nor do I have unlimited time so here is what you get. Anyway, sorry for the super late chapter. Also, I kind of hate it when writers just drop stories without any warning so rest assured that if I do end up deciding to drop this thing, I will be sure to inform the readers and put this story up for adoption. Without further ado, enjoy!**

Pure dead silence. That was what filled the final floor. While the third floor was filled with the sounds of clicking, and the DF was filled with the sounds of monsters and wind, the final floor had nothing other than Pyrrha's own breathing. It was suffocating in a way, and Pyrrha was grateful that the cavern did not echo the sounds for some odd reason. So far, the final floor was going smoothly except for one teensy weensy problem.

"Don't worry Pyrrha. The first floor is pretty easy Pyrrha. The first floor only has Grimm Pyrrha. This monster isn't a Grimm!" Pyrrha kicked a mutant bat-human monster away from her and cut off its head with her sword.

"And what is with this map? This isn't a map, but a bunch of directions! 'Go to the room with the Aztec-looking temple, and take the left passage. No need to climb up the damn thing.' I don't know what a Aztec-looking temple is!" Pyrrha hurled the notebook down and began furiously yanking her red hair. Nothing was going right. First, there was no map. Either Lich never gave it to her or he never made it. Second, the floor was constantly changing its structure. One moment a pathway disappeared for it to be replaced by a different path to a room jam-packed with Grimm _and_ weird monsters that wanted to kill her. Lich said nothing about how the top floor could just change with no warning whatsoever. As a result, Pyrrha had a hard time locating supply holes for her to restock on her diminishing food stock. She managed to make do with the random underground streams, but even so, she had trouble finding any food like mushrooms. Not only that, Grimm weren't the only enemy like Lich said. It had a bunch of other weird monsters like the DF. The only different thing was that the monsters were more humanoid.

Pyrrha took a deep breath and calmed herself. Getting angry wasn't going to help out her situation, and Lich did warn her how the cave system was potentially alive. In addition, he told her that the random earthquake when Lich figured out that she was alive was too much of a coincidence so she should be prepared for any random changes. With another deep breath, she picked up the notebook, put it in a makeshift pouch that she made with her red sash, and began moving forward once more with Lich's box glowing faintly around her neck.

In addition to the problems of the inconsistency of the caves, Lich's box was starting to act funny. It seemed to grow heavier as time went on as well as turn into a magnet for all sorts of monsters. Sure enough, it seems that the monsters were far more attracted to the box than to her. However, leaving it was not an option for she promised Lich that she would watch over the box no matter what.

At a three-way intersection, she was about to turn left when a wall suddenly shot up from underneath her causing her to run face first into a newly formed wall. Growling, she kicked the wall before turning the far right direction. The hallway soon began to get uncomfortably hot, and the ceiling began to glow with an eerie red light. At the next curve of the pathway, she saw a tower of magma. Immediately going on guard, Pyrrha suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. The magma seemed to have a humanoid shape to it so she was positive it was some sort of monster. After thinking things through, she decided to avoid the fight. Holding her sword in front of her, she began edging backwards. She was about to escape, but a Beowolf decided to appear and pounced at her. She rolled to the side, and stabbed it in the underbelly. Cursing at the stupid Grimm, Pyrrha slowly looked up to see the magma monster smiling at her. It opened up its four arms as if it wanted to give her a hug. Pyrrha smiled back before she bolted away.

She looked back to see it bounding after her with its four arms waving in anger. It tore off pieces of the wall and tossed debris at her. A rock almost blew off her leg, prompting her to run faster. Suddenly, the thundering footsteps stopped only to be replaced by a massive wind. The monster decided that it was now sick of running and was now giving chase by transforming its legs into some sort of lava rocket and was blasting towards her. Realizing that she wasn't going to outrun it and with nowhere to dodge, she braced herself and lifted the sword in front of her.

Her aura flared up and shattered from the impact, and her sword disappeared inside the magma body. Thankfully, the magma monster flew a bit too high so it was not a direct impact. As the monster zoomed down the hallway, Pyrrha picked herself up and began running the opposite direction of the monster.

Pyrrha continued running for quite a while since she was now completely weaponless for she lost her shield and shards to the final floor of the DF and her sword a couple moments ago to a magma walker. As a result, she was now carrying around Lich's arm as a weapon since his skeletal arm was surprisingly strong. She beat a zombie to re-death with it a couple moments ago. He would probably not mind. Would he? Pyrrha decided not to delve into this weird situation any further.

The silence was disrupted by a massive rumbling sound as the cavern expanded. Yes, it was not enough that the final floor could change structures and make or destroy walls with no warning. It had to be able to magically create bodies and other artificial structures. At first, Pyrrha thought she was going crazy, but a room filled with dead skeletons and a bunch of coffins appeared before her very eyes so she had no choice but to accept the weirdness of the cavern. Crunch.

"Sorry…" Pyrrha whispered to the skeleton that she stepped on. By now, Pyrrha was certain that this was no mere cavern that she was in right now. She was most likely in some sort of magical graveyard of some sort. However, that opened up a whole new can of questions. A graveyard of what? Was she in Remnant anymore? What really was magic? Could this all be some really advance technology of some ancient race of humans instead? Why was there an antique car in this room? Was this cave system once inhabited?

Pyrrha sighed as she pushed the questions to the back of her mind. Now was simply not the time to be wondering these things. Now was the time to keep her mind focused on staying alive considering that her only weapon was Lich's skeletal arm at the moment. In addition, she still had to find the 'Aztec-looking' temple, and her searches were coming up fruitless. She was pretty sure that the cavern was forcing her to go in circles at this point. She practically passed by this underground river uncountable times. Deciding to quench her thirst, she knelt at the river bank and when she brought the cool water to her lips, she realized something. Under the river, it looked like there was a passageway big enough for her to squeeze through that lead into the room right next to the current room. Any overland attempts to get into the next room were failures with how the cave system kept forming a wall. What about underwater?

Pyrrha decided to take the risk. If it came down to it, her aura could extend her time underwater anyway. Pyrrha jumped into the water and began swimming towards the hole. The cavern did not make any attempt to stop her as she crossed into the other room. When she finally surfaced, the contents of the next room made her breathe a sigh of relief. It was a massive room that reminded her of the size of the DF's rooms. However, there was a massive pyramid structure in the room with a staircase leading straight up. Pyrrha was sure about one thing. She didn't know what an Aztec looked like, but this building was most likely a temple. Once she dried herself using the thick moss around her, she began walking around to look for the passage way. There were none. Confused, Pyrrha reread the directions, but it clearly said that there should be another passageway. This entire room was boxed in except for the underwater passage. Shaking her head, she decided to climb the stairs to get a different point of view. Maybe she was looking at this the wrong way.

Once she reached the top, Pyrrha found a sacrificial table. Well, she guessed it was some sort of sacrificial table considering there was a bound skeleton on it. As she looked around for any other clues, she noticed that the table had some sort of message. _"The waters of life will show the way."_

"Waters of life?" Pyrrha mumbled to herself as she tried to decipher what this meant. Well, it most likely meant blood considering that this resembled a sacrificial chamber. She noticed a bowl next to the table. She tried to pick it up, but it was stuck to the floor. Deciding that the bowl was the place to put in the blood, she bit her thumb and drew a drop of blood which fell into the bowl. Suddenly, the entire room shown with a bright light, and Pyrrha felt the world heave around her. When Pyrrha could see again, she was no longer on top of the temple, but in some type of hallway. She took a step back, and almost fell off a steep edge. Quickly shuffling forward, she looked back to see the temple she was just on behind her. It seemed that the passageway wasn't on the ground level, but was high in the wall. Shaking her head at the sudden teleportation, Pyrrha decided not to question what just happened and kept moving forward.

The hallways were now no longer empty, but statues and beautiful pictures began to fill up the walls of the cavern. Occasionally, Pyrrha could see Lich's handiwork as well. She snickered at the picture of a dick that was carved on the forehead of a statue. Yes, it just had to be him.

However, it was the pictures on the walls that really drew Pyrrha's attention. It was frightfully similar to the creation myth of the two gods. Of how one brother kept creating life, and how another kept trying to destroy it. How one brother created the Grimm, and how humanity was born with the four relics. It went further than the myths though.

"Monty damn it Lich." If only she could see it since Lich practically defaced the entire next segment of the story with pictures of hangman, male and female body parts, and other stupid pictures. What little Pyrrha could make out was that it was a very violent time period. At the very end of the cave drawings, a blood red message was left. _"In retaliation to his brother's plans to gift humans the power to bend the elements to their will, he planned on cursing the humans with the powers of the dead. This was a step too far for both of them, and a devastating war rocked the whole planet. Here lies the remnants of the two gods. From their deaths, the Graveyard of the Gods was born."_

"Well… I guess Lich was right. This is the 'Graveyard of the Gods' apparently. But I wonder who made this place?" Pyrrha scratched under her chin as she pondered what to make of the new information. She decided to continue onwards, hoping that there would be more clues.

Eventually, she came upon a mural that showed people using magic awfully similar to Lich's magic. Too similar now that she thought about it. She scrutinized the mural even further to gain any insight into Lich's magic; however, the mural refused to tell anything more.

She continued onward and came upon another mural. This one was filled with pictures of death. People dying left and right only to be… reborn? Huh? No. That wasn't the right answer. Something didn't feel right. She ran back to the previous mural and compared it with a mental image of the mural of death. The people were the exact same. Down to the exact line. And yet. The mural of death had the people looking more dead? Pyrrha scratched her head as she tried to wrap her head around what she was looking at.

After a bit more running around and comparing, she came to the conclusion that these were the people who were gifted the powers of magic judging by the upright corner with some type of room granting magic powers. However, it seems that it had a price of the curse as stated by the message some time ago. Looking closer at the room that granted the powers, it was quite interesting with 4 statues representing the four maidens, and it was modeled like a gateway of some sort.

Pyrrha's observations were cut short by a massive hair-raising screech that echoed throughout the hallway. She whipped her head around to see a massive blood-red sentence on the opposite wall. _I'm coming for you._ It was coupled with fading stick figures of a humanoid things ripping apart what looked to be stick figures of girls. Pyrrha blanched and decided to keep moving forward. She wanted to spend more time observing the two murals but now was not the time. It seems there was now something hunting her.

Lich's direction stated that she was supposed to follow an underground river downstream. It said to use the landmark _HMS Victory_ as the starting point. Again, Pyrrha sighed in frustration at the terms Lich used. She didn't know what that was. Eventually, she came upon a grounded wooden sail ship. It had holes carved into the sides for what appeared to be rusted iron tubes. Iron…

Pyrrha decided to risk scavenging the ship for any scrap metal or weapons she could use. Using the rope that was dangling from the side, she managed to get on the deck with little problem. Scattered all over the deck were skeletons and rusted swords. Pyrrha began picking through the garbage to see if she could find any useable weapons that were not Lich's arm. She eventually found a couple of daggers that were functional, but not much else since a " _Getting closer…_ " message popped up on the deck. On the bright side, she managed to find the river Lich was talking about except she still didn't know what the _HMS Victory_ landmark was.

Eventually, the river lead to a door. Past the door was a long hallway with brick walls. Pyrrha double checked Lich's instructions. _Go down the hallway with brick walls and follow the marking I've made. Don't stray from the path._ With a deep sigh, she dove in to the mushroom illuminated hallways. Sure enough, Lich did make these markings making it quite easy for her to stay on the path. A massive arrow was really hard to miss after all.

If anything, the whole maze showed extensive use by Lich. There was discarded crafting materials all over the floors, and some parts of the walls was filled top to bottom with writing from Lich. Every single room had a stone table with an occasional anvil and shelf of random figurines. Some rooms had shattered plates as well, failures with trying to eat apparently. In addition, it turned out that Lich wasn't good at drawing at first. Pyrrha snickered at Lich's failed attempts at drawing a dog, but as time went on, it became frightfully good.

The longer Pyrrha spent in the maze, the more she felt how _long_ Lich had been in this cavern. She solemnly walked by a broken noose that hung from the ceiling and the guillotine. He wasn't exaggerating when he stated that he gave up with suicide simply because it no longer worked.

When Pyrrha leaned in closer to check if she could make a makeshift axe with the guillotine blade, the cavern shook, and Pyrrha was almost decapitated by the falling blade. After calming her nerves, Pyrrha turned around to see another message. ' _Almost there…'_ After that, Pyrrha kept walking at a brisk pace until she was able to calm down a bit. Once she reached a small well that Lich probably made, she stopped for a quick water break and tried to take a small nap with one eye open. The problem with the last floor so far wasn't the enemies, but the tension. The feeling that something bad was going to happen.

As Pyrrha was rummaging around the armory trying to find any weapon that was possibly useful and not completely covered in rust, a rustling sound echoed from the hallway, and something was coming her way. The air began to vibrate with power, and the entire room groaned from the pressure that was emitted. Pyrrha quickly looked around for any place to hide, and she flipped over a stone weapon box and hid under it.

A sickening slop-slop sound began to echo throughout the room as a rotting foot showed itself in front of Pyrrha's hiding spot. It may be too much to call it a foot considering the sheer amount of fleshy string and shadows that danced around the foot. In fact, it was getting hard to even look at the foot due to how it was changing shape. One moment it was a normal rotting foot, next, a crab leg, next, a tentacle.

Judging from how it could change shapes, Pyrrha assumed that the monster hunting her was a shape shifter of some sort similar to the slimes from the DF. The only problem is that this monster seemed far more detailed with its shapes and far more deadly. Even just looking at its foot, the monster just oozed _death_ from its body. Every hair on Pyrrha's body rose, and Pyrrha had to cover her mouth and nose in an attempt to stop herself from hyperventilating. Eventually, it slithered away into the depths of the maze.

"What in Monty's name was that?" Pyrrha took out Lich's notes for any hints about that monster. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. The only thing that Lich put to watch out for the was weird hydra/dog monster that Pyrrha has yet to meet. Pyrrha decided that movement was the best way to counter that monster. Fighting it would be an absolute last resort.

Of course, it just had to be her luck that when she was walking down a certain hallway, a screech echoed from behind quickly followed by the rapid pattering of footsteps. Pyrrha didn't even bother looking behind her as she took off sprinting in an attempt to avoid being caught. The entire time she was running she glanced down corridors and formed plans in how to slow down the monster or hiding spots for her to fool it.

Pyrrha jumped over a table and smashed some sort of structure behind her to create rubble that would hopefully slow the shapeshifter down. Judging by the rapid footsteps, it failed. If anything, the monster used it as a jumping board to close the distance even more. Pyrrha cursed, and she was quickly considering using her semblance to collapse a section of the room when the monster croaked out a sentence that broke her train of thought, **"Give me the soul**."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what the monster wanted. It wanted the box. Lich's box that he entrusted to Pyrrha, and there was absolutely no way that she could give it to this monster. To do so would be the greatest betrayal in Pyrrha's mind, and something _very_ unheroic. However, she knew that she would not be able to outrun or hide from this monster forever. Deep down, she knew that it was only a matter of time before it caught up to her.

This left her with little choice but to resort to hiding the box, and she knew the perfect hiding spot for it. She remembered the armory and sheer amount of stuff that was in there. If you wished to hide a tree, hide it in a forest. Thankfully, the entire place was interconnected so it should be easy to double back. Now the only problem was buying some time…

Pyrrha took off her backpack of sharp metal objects and began flinging them up into the air. She then captured them with her semblance so they began orbiting around her. Once they were all slowly circling around her, she scattered them behind her so that they began ricocheting off the walls and creating a storm of sharp metal objects. The monster's screams of pain rewarded her ears as she sped up determined to gain as much time as possible.

A right, a left, then another right turn lead her right to the hallway that leads to the armory. She quickly slid in, put Lich's box into a stone box, and hurled the entire thing into the pile that occupied the room. The box landed with a crash as a landslide of rusting blades, stone tablets, and scrap metal buried the box.

Satisfied with how it has blended in with the mess, Pyrrha doubled back around and went directly into the next room just in time to see the shapeshifter burst into view with a couple of shards sticking out of its… body? It hurt Pyrrha's eyes to stare at the monster for too long for it kept changing forms. Once it was shaped like a gorilla Grimm, the next a cartoonish monster that scared Pyrrha as a child, and another form as a worm. It eventually settled on a form that had no eyes, no nose, no ears, and only mouths with carnivorous teeth. All 20 mouths that Pyrrha could see licked in anticipation as it pounced at Pyrrha.

Prepared for the pounce, Pyrrha rolled to the side as the monster almost passed by her harmlessly. Almost. The monster reached out his hand which had another mouth in its palm and chomped onto her shoulder while she was rolling. It then smashed its feet into the ground and hurled the redheaded girl onto the wall. Before Pyrrha could even slump down from the pain, the shapeshifter grabbed Pyrrha by her neck and smashed her onto the wall once more. As a last-ditch effort, Pyrrha tried to summon her remaining shards to pierce the monster, but the mouth in the shapeshifter's palm clenched down on her throat.

" _You should be more aware of your situation. You taste delicious after all."_ The abomination used the palm's mouth to lick Pyrrha's throat while Pyrrha winced at the disgusting feeling.

"What d-do you w-want?" Pyrrha could barely speak due to the pressure that the monster was giving out. It was like being in the presence of a Grimm without any weapons, but ten times worse. It was the feeling of a deer in the headlights.

" _His soul. Give it to me."_ It clenched down even harder on her throat as it threatened her.

"I don't have it." Tears began to pool up at the corner of Pyrrha's eyes. The lack of oxygen was beginning to make her feel woozy.

" _Don't lie to me. It's hanging on around your neck right now."_ Pyrrha's eyes widened at the declaration and looked down. Sure enough, Lich's box was right there even though a couple minutes ago she hid it in the armory. Pyrrha then remembered what Lich said about the box, its abilities, and its fickleness in changing abilities, and she felt like screaming in frustration at how inconvenient this box was making things for her.

" _So close. Yet I cannot touch it for souls must be given never taken."_ It began purring as it tried to rub the box, but a forcefield prevented it from actually touching it.

"Why do you even want it?" Pyrrha's eyes hardened as she realized that the monster couldn't take it from her without her consent.

" _This soul is like.. what do you humans call it. Yes. Aged wine. Yes…"_ Drool began to drip from each of the monster's mouths. Pyrrha tried to force down her fears as she slowly realized that this thing could actually provide some answer.

"What are you? What is this place?" The monster wiped and shook off its drool as it began scrutinizing her with the mouths that existed where the eyes should be.

" _Why should I tell you?"_ Pyrrha smiled as best she could before answering, "Well, I am the only one who has possession of this amazing delicious soul. If you want any chance of getting it, you may want to humor me."

The monster paused for a moment before it smashed Pyrrha onto the wall once more and began slowly strangling her. " _Do not get smart with me. What's stopping me from just killing you and taking it for myself?"_

"I… don't… know… What is… stopping you?" Pyrrha managed to croak this out before the shapeshifter screeched in anger and loosened its hold only for it to slap Pyrrha in the face and throwing her to the opposite wall. When she collapsed onto the floor, the monster stomped on her stomach. Then, it began laughing.

" _You are an interesting human. Of all the people I have met, you are the only one to have talked back to me like that. As thanks for the amusement after millennia, I will humor you. However, my patience is limited. Should you delay giving me the box for too long, I will resort to… torture to get what I want."_ At those words, the thing latched on to Pyrrha's foot with one of its hands, and flayed her foot. Pyrrha began screaming and crying from the pain until the monster slapped her once more.

 _"_ _Your time is ticking girl._ " Lich's box glowed softly as it began healing Pyrrha's wound allowing her to form coherent thoughts once more.

"Who… are you? What… is… this place?" Pyrrha sobbed out two questions as she tried to think of any way out of the mess she was in.

" _I was created by the gods themselves. A loyal servant. I was also the template for what you humans call the Grimm. They were based off me especially regarding their ability to detect negative emotions."_ Without even breaking the flow of the story, the ancient being slowly pushed down on Pyrrha's chest when it felt her trying to push off the foot.

" _Alas. I was destroyed by someone."_ Pyrrha in an attempt to buy more time asked, "Then, how are you even here?"

" _Gods don't just die. When gods die, they leave behind a tear in the reality of space/time creating a whole new… realm you could say. Hence, the Graveyard of the Gods is born. Here, all of the gods' achievement and deeds when they existed come back to life and are exhibited in this realm. Their creations can walk this realm and their deeds like the numerous apocalypses are showcased here. Only catch is that no souls are born here. It would explain all the Grimm walking around but no humans, wouldn't it? It is also the reason why I am walking around once more as well. I was one of the gods' greatest achievements. The reason why the realm simulates an underground area…. Well… there is a reason why you humans bury your dead."_

"Then, how did I even get here?" Pyrrha's attempt to flare up the last dredges of her aura failed. This monster could actually suppress aura.

" _Well, the place isn't that stable. There are methods and events that can bust holes between reality and the Graveyard. That witch should definitely know of one. I don't know how you came here, and I don't care about how you came here."_ The pressure on Pyrrha's chest increased when she tried to squirm her way out.

"How did Lich get here then?"

" _Who? Oh, the other human. Hehe. Well… not much of a human anymore, is he? Not with that curse of his. I know how he came here though. One of the gods' achievements was space manipulation and gateways. They weren't exactly stable though. He probably got caught up in one of those… accidents and ended up here…. Right next to the altars where the gods granted the gifts of magic and the attempted corruption of man."_

"What do you mean by the altars? Is it the reason why Lich can use magic? Is it the reason why he is in that state?" Pyrrha was now interested in what the monster had to say. It may provide some insight to Lich's condition so that she might be able to help him out in some way.

" _I think I humored you for long enough. Give me his soul."_

"Why do you even want his soul?" The monster's eye mouths narrowed as it chomped down on Pyrrha's shoulder, eliciting a scream from her. " _Give it to me!"_

"Why do you even want it! What could you possibly do with it!" Pyrrha continued to resist and tried to endure the pain. She couldn't hand the soul over to this thing for that would be betraying Lich. He trusted her when he gave her this box. She wouldn't break it no matter what.

" _It is an abomination to this place. It must be destroyed. How dare he try and cheat the curse? How dare he desecrate one of the gods' achievements? He should have simply accepted his fate and become a walking corpse. To even have the nerve to protect the last remnants of his humanity when the curse took all physical aspects of it away."_

"I won't let you take it! I won't let you destroy it!"

" _Perhaps this would change your mind._ " The monster hoisted her up onto the wall with a hand on her throat. Then, it used its other hand to clamp down on the upper right thigh. Slowly, it began peeling off Pyrrha's skin from her leg. Her screams grew by an octave, and she began to mumble out a bunch of gibberish as it began slowly peeling all the way down to her ankles. The box immediately began trying to fix the damage done to Pyrrha's body.

" _I can do keep doing this for eternity. Your screams are music to my ears._ _Give me the soul, and I'll even take you to the exit of this place. You have a soul after all, and you are a creation of one of the gods. You can leave this place. Just give me the soul."_

With tears flowing down her eyes, Pyrrha squinted at the hideous creature. Every fiber of her body wanted to give in to its demands. She slowly opened her mouth and spat into the monster's face. "Never."

Rage began pouring out from the creature as it punched her in the face again and again. Once it was finished, it hurled her across the room, and a loud snap rang out when Pyrrha impacted the other wall. While Pyrrha was trying to get up with an arm that was pointed the wrong way, the ancient servant of the gods marched over and picked her up the throat.

" _This is your last chance to give it to me. I know this place quite intimately as well as all the places that can break your mind. I do not wish to harm one of his creations, and I will even help you escape from this place if you give me his soul. Now give me that THING around your neck, or I will MAKE you give it to me."_

"Lich would say this to you if he was in my position. Fuck you."

The monster raised his hand to strike again, but the box glowed with an extremely strong black aura, and a skeletal hand grabbed monster's hand before it could go through with the strike. A skull appeared from behind with a shadow covering its eye sockets, and the mandibles and maxilla were clenched so tightly that a grinding sound could be heard. The head leaned in and whispered, "Surprise mothafucka. I hear that you want my soul?"


	12. Chapter 12

"I killed you, and you didn't stay dead. Now, you threaten and hurt my best friend. If you wanna die that bad, just kill yourself." A tense atmosphere settled over the three in the room.

" _I cannot die in this place. I will simply come back."_ Lich's grip on the monster tightened.

"Oh, now you speak to me. You didn't even speak once when I was alone up here a couple decades ago." All the mouths on the thing burst out laughing.

" _Do you speak with your food?"_ Lich's skull began twitching with anger.

"No. I also don't trust a thing like you who excels in illusion and trickery. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and I can throw you quite far. Graveyard of the Gods my ass. This place is more like the trashcan of the gods if you are here. I think you were thrown away by the gods because you look more like a failed creation." At those words, the already tense atmosphere increased by a tenfold. The two inhabitants of the cavern gave off an extreme pressure that made it extremely hard for Pyrrha to breath.

" _Do you WANT me to kill your precious friend?"_ The monster tightened its hold on Pyrrha's throat threatening to snap it.

"I'd love to see you try." At those words, Lich's shadow burst up in the form of a blade cutting off the monster's arm holding Pyrrha. Before the monster could even attempt to scream in annoyance, Lich whipped around and threw the monster down the hallway. A resounding crash echoed from the direction of the monster after a couple seconds.

"Lich!" Pyrrha tried to rush over and hug Lich, but she did not quite recover from the trauma to her leg so she stumbled. Lich caught her before she fell on her face, and she hugged Lich's ribcage as hard as she could. It felt rough, but it was comforting to know that she was finally no longer alone.

"Yeah. I'm back." Lich returned Pyrrha's hug as he stepped back to get a good look at her. "Well… At least you survived. However, why are you still here? I told you not to wait for me and go to the surface."

Pyrrha sighed in exasperation before speaking. "I didn't wait for you Lich. This floor is messing with my head with how much it changes its structures. In fact, your directions were not very useful at all. I couldn't even understand what some of these words meant, like I don't know what a Tyranid even looks like!"

"Wait, I wrote that? Gimme that." Lich took his notebook from Pyrrha before facepalming at his stupidity as he reread what he wrote.

"I am so sorry. I keep forgetting that you aren't from my world so you won't get these references. The fact that you even got this far without getting utterly lost is an achievement alright." Lich was about to say more; however, an ear-piercing roar shattered the calm as they were reminded that there was something still out there that needed a beating.

"Right. We still have that asshole. I'm sure that we have a lot to talk about, but let's talk after we put this thing down." At those words, Pyrrha got into ready position with her remaining three shards orbiting around her and a dagger pointed in the direction of the roar.

"Umm. Pyrrha. Do you mind stepping back a bit? I don't think you would be of much help this fight." Pyrrha was about to complain, but then she realized that Lich did have a point. She wasn't going to do much with her current equipment.

As she positioned herself behind Lich, a blur burst out from the doorway and tried to bypass Lich to attack Pyrrha. Lich realized the monster's goal so he quickly extended his arm to grab one of its appendages and flicked it to the ground. This time the monster changed forms to what could be best described as a terrestrial octopus. There was no other way to describe it due to the massive clump of tentacles that were twirling around the main body.

"Pyrrha! Get out of here!" Lich managed to grunt a warning out before the tentacles wrapped around his spine and began smashing him onto the ground until Lich electrocuted the monster. The cavern began dancing with shadows from the additional lighting caused by Lich's spell. Pyrrha did not stay in the room to watch the ensuing battle for she knew that she would simply be dead weight. Once she was gone, Lich should be able to utilize his more destructive spells.

Sadly, the monster realized this as well. It has already fought with Lich once when Lich still lived in the top floor. It knew of the destructive powers that Lich was capable of wielding. The monster also knew that the main reason why he did not use those spells yet was because of Pyrrha being in the vicinity. Before Pyrrha was able to escape into the hallways, it used its tentacles to collapse the exit that Pyrrha was heading for, forcing Pyrrha to jump back to avoid getting crushed by the falling debris.

" _You are going nowhere._ " It squeezed out those words before it was hurled away by Lich. Lich then proceeded to grapple the monster's main body and used it as a battering ram to crash through the wall into the next room. He then followed it up by a barrage of ground spike which the monster dodged by jumping and latching onto the ceiling with its appendages. Afterwards, it began raining down lashes at hypersonic speeds with its tentacles forcing Lich to go on the defensive with dodging. Even then, he was not fast enough resulting in one of his skeletal arms shattering from using it too much to block against the attacks. Meanwhile Pyrrha was hiding behind one of the boulders trying to stay as small as possible in order to avoid getting hit by the monster's attack. If she was hit even once by the tentacle, she would definitely lose more than a limb.

Once Lich lost his arm, the monster juked Lich into dodging before jumping from its position at the ceiling in order to engage in close combat with Lich. Lich was expecting another tentacle instead so he wasn't prepared for the body slam by the monster. Soon, they began exchanging a flurry of attacks on each other, but Lich was on the losing end. Cracks began appearing on his skulls, ribcage, and his femur as he desperately tried to fight with only one arm.

Pyrrha knew how bad the situation was for Lich; however, she could be able to help Lich since she still had the arm that detached from him when he threw her in the DF. If she could just get the extra arm to him, then he should quickly be able to get the upper hand in this fight. Pyrrha took a glance at the blur of the two titans fighting. She could barely even make out the punches, blocks, kicks, and whips that each one was dealing to each other. Going near those two without a good well-thought-out plan was going to be suicide. Desperate for anything that could help her, she looked around the room and rummaged around her little pack made out of her red sash.

While Pyrrha was busy trying to think of a way to get Lich his extra arm, Lich himself was, to put things quite simply, getting his ass kicked. When the monster took a pace back and lowered its tentacles allowing for a straight shot to the disfigured face, Lich shot forward and tried to punch it with a fire-wreathed fist. It was too late by then for Lich to realize that it was a feint so he ended up taking a huge hit to the right side of his skull resulting in his parietal bone caving inward. Lich fell down on his spine, and tricked the monster into diving for him allowing him to kick the monster's face upward. Just then, a red sash with two pieces of iron tied to each end wrapped itself around the monster's face, forcing it to disengage.

"Lich!" Pyrrha then threw Lich's arm towards his fallen figure. With a quick nod of thanks, Lich grabbed his old arm from mid-air and attached it to his socket. The arm was still weaker than normal due to erosion from the sands, but it was better than nothing. The monster was having a difficult time unwrapping the red sash from its face so Lich quickly took advantage of it by using a ground spell to pin its feet in place, and Lich proceeded to dash forward using a massive burst of wind.

He quickly shortened the distance, sunk his fingers into the monster's chest and proceeded to rip it open exposing what looked to be a hideous mockery of the human heart. The monster shrieked with anger at the opening of its weak point. Should Lich create contact between the heart and his box within the monster's body, it would trigger an explosion deeply injuring the monster for a long time, just like last time. Lich's box was already a huge soul battery that oozed with power so putting it in contact with the power core of another powerful monster so haphazardly was an explosion just waiting to happen.

"Pyrrha! The box! Throw it!" Lich yelled at Pyrrha to throw him his box so he could go in for the finishing blow. Pyrrha quickly took off her box and threw it at Lich's outstretched hand…

" _Why thank you Pyrrha. How kind of you."_ Only for Lich to suddenly switch places with the monster. Pyrrha blinked twice to see if she was seeing things properly, but by then it was too late. With the box firmly in the monster's grasp, it smacked Lich aside sending him crashing into the wall and charged through the opposite wall quickly disappearing into the folds of the cavern. Pyrrha's face quickly grew pale, and she ran toward the monster's direction; however, Lich's outstretched skeletal arm quickly stopped her.

"What are you doing?! That thing is going to escape!" At Pyrrha's outburst, Lich merely shook his skull.

"Give it up. That thing is already gone." Pyrrha's head whipped around to stare at Lich's eye sockets. Tears began pooling at the corner of Pyrrha's eyes.

"But. But. It. I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry… I threw it at you though and when I…" Before Pyrrha could utter one more word, Lich pulled in Pyrrha for a hug and quickly stopped her from speaking..

"I know you didn't mean to. I told you. That fucker is an expert at illusion and manipulation. I've learned to tell the difference between illusions and reality, but you wouldn't have developed that skill. Err. At least I hope not. It took me like 60 years of hallucination and madness to learn the difference for me… Anyway! I don't blame you. It was that thing's illusion that got you. It's alright." Lich began wiping away Pyrrha's tears the best he could with his skeletal fingers.

"But Lich. That thing has your box. What if he…" Lich poked Pyrrha's forehead before she could go any further.

"Don't worry about it. This isn't the first time it got ahold of my box. He didn't kill me then. He won't kill me now." Pyrrha's response was a blank look followed by a dead toned 'huh?'. Lich chuckled as he picked up Pyrrha's ripped red sash and handed it to her.

"Well… Let's just say that thing conned me out of my box when I was up here before. It took me a LONG time to get it back. Partly because how good that thing is at hiding its tracks and partly because I really wanted to end my existence, and I thought that thing would kill me."

"Doesn't it mean that we should get it back then?"

"No for two reasons. One, it will take way too long. We don't have the time. You need to get out of here ASAP. Two, my box is quite safe with it to be honest. Far safer than anywhere else in the cavern."

"Wait, what? That thing was promising death and doom with your box."

"Again. That thing excels at illusions and trickery. I would take everything it says with a grain of salt. When I retrieved my box, I found out that thing has a collector's mind or something like that. It has some sort of morbid fascination with my box, and I'm pretty sure it was fapping to it when I finally found it again… Now that I think about it, I REALLY want my box back now…" Lich stared off into space before shaking his head and shrugging.

"Ah well. Priorities. We need to get you out of here first." Lich began pushing her out of the room and into the hallways until Pyrrha stopped.

"Are you SURE about this?" Lich nodded his head vigorously only for another piece of his skull to fall out.

"Yes. That thing didn't kill me last time. It won't kill me this time. Besides, you know how insanely powerful my box is. It will be just fine. Also, you know how fickle my box can be. I have a feeling that if the box was in any danger it will just teleport back to us. Take it from me when I say that the box has an excellent self-preservation mechanism. In addition, I still have my keys with me so he can't open it." Pyrrha began thinking about all the abuse the box went through on the journey up here. It went through the digestive system of a bunch of monsters, it survived a drop into an acidic lake, and it floated on a magma lake like it was a swimming pool. She then thought about the box's teleportation's ability. When she thought deeply about it, she really couldn't feel that Lich's box was in any sort of danger.

"If you say so… By the way, how did the monster get your box the last time. I really can't see you getting robbed." At this question, Lich comically stumbled and began clearing his throat even though he didn't have one.

"Uh… Lich?"

"Hee-hee. Let's just not ask that question." Pyrrha's eyes shot up as she sensed a really good story.

"Ah.. but Lich. It would make me feel so much better if I heard how you lost your arm."

"Pyrrha. Let's be real here. I am not… Fuck you. You know that is playing dirty." Lich tried to look away from Pyrrha's puppy eyes, but it was only a matter of time before he caved.

"Fine. That thing appeared to me in the figure of this smoking hot woman and made me watch this illusion of how it could give me my body back. It only asked for my box so it could make these alterations to revert me. I fell for it." Pyrrha blinked at the absurd story.

"Don't lie to me, Lich. I find it really difficult to believe that you actually fell for that." Lich then coughed out something in response.

"Say what?"

"ItmayhavealsopromisedmesexonceIgotmybodyback." Lich quickly rushed out the last bit of information before he began pulling on Pyrrha. "Alright let's go! Onward to your freedom! But first, let's make you some weapons."

"Wait, Lich. I didn't hear what you said. It promised you what?" However, Pyrrha was straight out ignored as she was dragged behind Lich as he set his mind on walking in the hopes that she would get distracted.

Since Lich could actually understand what he wrote, they were able to find his forge with no problem at all. In addition, the cavern no longer was changing the structure as frequently ever since Lich rejoined Pyrrha. In addition, since Lich still had a good memory of the layout of the top floor, any time he came across a place in which there should have been a hallway, he simply broke open the wall with his spells to gain access to the blocked pathway. As a result, travel went far smoother than when Pyrrha was navigating the top floor by herself.

"Hey, Pyrrha. Do you need new armor as well?" She took a quick glance down at her tattered and burnt armor. With how it was completely torn apart, she might as well been wearing bikini armor. She gave a quick nod as Lich went to work with scavenging for materials. Once he came back with a stone slab that was piled with metal and other materials, he shuts himself in the forge with the flickering lights from the flames coming from the edges of the door.

"Tada! I come bearing gifts like Santa Claus… If he went around giving middle schoolers weapons that is." Lich then handed Pyrrha a replica of her sword/javelin weapon and her lovely shield with a compartment that was filled with metal shavings. Her armor had some modifications. It had two layers. The outer layer was a thin piece of Lich's special alloy, and the second layer was some sort of armor made of a bunch of small circles.

"Oh, that's called chain mail." Pyrrha nodded as she slipped it over her head and began fastening the straps.

"I noticed how you were thinner so I tried to make the armor lighter by doing away with the solid piece of metal like before and replaced it with more emphasis on the chainmail. I should have cut down on some weight hopefully. I can't really feel weight so…"

To be honest, Pyrrha really couldn't feel much difference. She simply shrugged and began moving around before giving a thumbs up. It didn't impede her movements so it was good enough for her. Once she strapped on her helmet and her leg straps, she was good to go.

With new equipment, the duo once more tackled the final horrors the cavern would throw at them. And the cavern wasted no time indeed.

"Uggh. This is new!" Pyrrha groaned and began dodging the brown substance that a couple of monkey Grimm were throwing at them. Lich, on the other hand, simply stood there not caring about the rain of projectiles as they splattered on his bones.

"You know. I never really figured out how these shadowy things can generate poop." Lich threw back a couple of fireballs in return as the Grimm scattered before deciding to swarm them instead. Deciding to conserve his spell usage instead, Lich got out his longsword and made a long sweep cutting down four monkeys in one go before he flipped the sword around, grabbed the blade, and used the pommel of his sword to hammer the Grimm that got too close.

Pyrrha provided cover for Lich's right side as she used her shield to hold the Grimm back as her javelin jabbed at the Grimm that was trying to get past her shield. The last monkey went for a jump attack, but it got impaled by a longsword and a javelin. Lich and Pyrrha grinned at each other as the Grimm dissolved into nothingness.

"Well, that was a good warm up. Hey, why are you walking away?"

"You stink." Pyrrha had her nose pinched in an attempt to block the smell.

"Ahh… Yeah. I don't have a sense of smell anymore. Want a hug?"

"Lich. Get closer, and I will cut off your legs. Don't think I won't since I know that you can simply reattach them again." Lich's response was only a hearty laugh as he began walking off to the closest underground river he could remember with Pyrrha following a respectable distance behind. A couple of Grimm attacks later, they soon heard the rushing sounds of

"Hey. I know this river. We are actually really close to the end now. Just keep following down this bank and a couple more hallways and then BAM. We should arrive at the door I was talking about."

"And we will get there as soon as you wash off that poop. You really stink."

"What are you, my mom?"

"Eww. I don't want to be the mother of a skeleton."

"Oof. You hurt me."

"Hah. Just go wash up please."

"Alright. Alright."

Lich began scrubbing off his skeletal body of every nook and cranny that the shit could have wormed its way into. As a result, it was taking quite a while so Pyrrha decided to take this time to get a bit of sleep. It was difficult trying to sleep by herself due to fears that she would get attacked in her sleep. As a result, she was never able to get enough sleep. She woke up to the sounds of Lich getting up from the river ten minutes later. When Lich turned around, Pyrrha sighed at the poop that still covered the back of his spine.

"Lich. You still have a lot of poop in the crooks of your spine." In response, Lich popped out his skull and looked at his back. "So, I do."

After watching Lich struggle at trying to wash his back, Pyrrha stood up, ripped a piece from her already deteriorating red sash and began wiping his spine.

"Thanks. I've always wanted a back wash… Although I would prefer that I had flesh… and that it was a woman with more developed boobs." Pyrrha merely gave a playful slap on Lich's skull as she continued to wipe his back.

"Lich. Don't these cracks hurt?" Pyrrha fingered all the numerous cracks that appeared all over his body after his fight with the monster.

"Hmm? No. Not really. I told you that most of my sense of touch is practically gone so I don't really feel this." An awkward silence fell over the two.

"Alright. I think I got all of it." Lich leaned down into the river, and after a couple minutes of soaking, the water slowly became brown. "This may sound disgusting, but looking at this water reminds me of chocolate milk."

"Did you like chocolate milk?"

"Like it? I loved that shit! A pity that I won't be able to drink it anymore." Lich finished up and walked out of the river to begin stretching out of habit. With that, they went down the river, getting ever closer to the door that will lead to the outside world.

"Whoa…" Pyrrha gasped in surprise at the majestic hallway that opened up in front of them. Statues and beautiful murals lined the walls that lead up to this small wooden door at the end.

"Yeah… If you examine these works of arts a bit closer, you realize that I don't really agree with this place being the Graveyard of the Gods."

"What? But I read this message on the wall that talked about the gods dying and this place being born."

"Was the message in blood-red color?"

"Yes…"

"Yeah. That was probably an illusion. What this room will tell you is a bunch of random little snip bits from what I could tell. An argument between two gods regarding life, death, and resurrection. Some type of love tragedy. A revolt against the gods. And the final picture." Lich walked up to a mural in which the two gods were dumping what looked to be corpses into a gigantic pit in the ground.

"I'm guessing that the revolt had a lot of people dying so the gods sort of made this graveyard. It might explain all the Grimm too with all the negative emotional remnants a pile-up of corpses after a war would have."

A grim mood fell over Pyrrha as she contemplated what that meant. However, her train of thought was broken when Lich gave her a thump over her head. "Don't think about it too much. You are going to get out of here real soon, and you will never see this place again. And look. Past that door will lead you to another door that will lead you to your freedom."

Of course, it was at that moment the three-headed dog monster burst out of the door and grew to titanic size dwarfing the two. All three heads then proceeded to howl resulting in the room trembling, and Pyrrha had to cover her ears to avoid going deaf.

"Fuck my life." Lich managed to curse before he got smacked by a paw and went crashing through numerous statues. Pyrrha fared no better as she was taken by surprise at the sheer speed of the monster despite its size and was almost swallowed. At the moment, she managed to wedge herself in the dog's mouth preventing it from closing and swallowing her whole. However, her sword was slowly slipping from its placement.

Desperately, she summoned her shards to create a pole that forced the dog's mouth open even wider, and she quickly took advantage of it by jumping off. While she was falling, she braced herself for the impact, but Lich managed to grab her in midair so she avoided taking fall damage.

"Lich. Did that thing just eat all my really sharp shards like it was a snack?"

"You don't question this thing. You just try to survive." Lich blurted this out before he dived forward to avoid an acid spit. He then proceeded to throw a huge wave of lightning and fireballs at the dog so Pyrrha could dive behind a statue to hide. "I also remember this thing being a LOT slower."

After dodging a fire stream, Lich yelled at Pyrrha to prepare herself. With a nod, Pyrrha peeked out to see what Lich was trying to do. With a grunt, Lich propelled himself into the air with the help of a spell and grabbed onto the snout of the armored middle head. He then punched his hand into the nostril and froze all the snot inside the nose. With a howl, the middle head shook off Lich and shot out a stream of metal at Lich, which Pyrrha quickly snatched up with her semblance.

Now that Pyrrha had her greatest and most versatile weapon refilled once more, she jumped out of cover and began fighting more offensively. She used the shards to block many of the physical attacks and cover their movements in a flock of metal. The monster had a hard time pinpointing where they were because of all the shards that were zooming around everywhere. Occasionally, a stream of metal tried to cut the dog; however, its skin was too thick to pierce. Lich's spells had even less effect on the dog for it seemed to actually absorb many of the spells instead. Eventually, the three-headed dog got sick of the goose chase that went on for quite some time so the two side heads began taking a deep breath while the middle armored head glowered at them as if it was taking aim for the other two heads.

"Shit! Pyrrha. Take cover!" Lich created a hole and jumped in, but Pyrrha was too far away so she was forced to concentrate all of her shards in a thick dome around her. A typhoon of fire and acid swirled around the room as it began quickly stripping Pyrrha of the majority of her shards. Just before it could penetrate the second to last layer of Pyrrha's dome, the storm ended, and the dog looked tired as the two heads panted heavily while it looked unsteady on the legs. Lich upon seeing this began formulating a plan.

"Pyrrha! Head for that door!" Lich then stomped on the floor shooting up four pillars of stone unbalancing the dog so that it flipped over with a thundering crash. Realizing what Lich meant, Pyrrha made a mad dash for the door. Sadly, the dog was able to recover quickly by reducing its size and jumped at Pyrrha latching onto her arm with all three mouths. Her aura quickly began to drain from the collective bite as she struggled to free herself before it collapsed.

Lich tackled the dog away from Pyrrha as he began wrestling with it. The dog did have three heads though so Lich was unable to prevent one of the heads from biting his left hand clean off. Cursing, Lich bathed the entire dog with flame, but he might as well been giving it a heat bath since it did absolutely nothing.

The dog was soon able to regain its strength so it regrew to its maximum size once more, crushing Lich underneath one of its paws. While Lich was desperately struggling to escape, Pyrrha quickly came to the rescue by hurling her shield straight at the dog's head. Instead of actually hitting the dog, one of the heads merely ate the shield. All the of the heads turned towards Pyrrha with an annoyed expression.

It was all the distraction Lich needed to create a stone pillar that smacked the monster straight in the dick causing it to leap up in pain. Lich and Pyrrha quickly took this chance to get even closer to the door, but even then the dog would not let them go so easily.

Realizing the danger, Lich made a running jump and stabbed the eye of the dog causing it to shriek in pain. The injured dog began whining while the other two heads slowly got into attack position with hatred and vengeance apparent in their eyes.

"Oh shit." Lich braced himself for the attack. Pyrrha looked over her shoulder to see the predicament that Lich was in. She turned around, used her shards to make her javelin even bigger, and hurled it right at the dog's ass. It was a bull's eye, and while the gigantic dog was enraged at the new wound on its butt, Lich punched the dog's snout, jumped off, picked up Pyrrha, and darted through the door. He then turned around to use his magic to haphazardly create a massive stone barricade around the door.

"Well… let's never do that again. Nice butt shot. Ten out of ten anal to that dog thing. Do you think that would count as bestiality?"

"Does that thing even count as an animal? It feels like it was more of a monster than an animal."

"Well, you can cross 'taking a monster's anal virginity' from your bucket list."

"Why in Monty's name would that be in my bucket list?"

"I don't know." Lich and Pyrrha stared at each other before bursting into laughter. The adrenaline from the fight began to drain out from them as they collapsed onto the ground. It was Lich who got up first and beckoned towards Pyrrha to quickly get up.

"Would ya look at that. The way to your home." Pyrrha stared up at the massive decorative door with the message, 'Only the living shall pass.' She held her breath as she walked up to the orb and placed her hands on it. Slowly, the door opened to reveal a swirling portal with the colors of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Pyrrha looked back at Lich and smiled. They made it.

Disaster struck then and there. The three-headed dog was not pleased with Pyrrha's attack so once it recovered, it began ramming the blocked door with all its might. The entire room groaned and shook violently causing both of them to lose balance and fall down. Due to Lich's haphazard spell in using the ground to barricade the door, he unintentionally weakened the stability of the cavern. After a couple more rams, the ceiling fell.

So close yet so far. Pyrrha thought this as she closed her eyes and covered her face in a futile attempt to protect herself from the falling ceiling as she waited for the embrace of death. It never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes and gasped at the sight. Lich was fast enough to use his magic to solidify the ceiling and stabilize parts of the cavern, but he went into overload so he couldn't finish stabilizing the cavern. As a result, Lich was now holding up the entire ceiling with just his physical skeletal body.

"Lich…" Pyrrha gasped at how cracks were slowly spreading across his skeletal structure. His existing cracks were only getting wider and wider.

"Pyrrha. You have to go. I can't hold it for much longer." Pyrrha edged closer to touch Lich, but a 'No!' from Lich stopped her.

"Don't come close to me. If you touch my body, I feel like its going to break. Listen. To. Me. Get out of here."

"And leave you here! I thought I told you that I was going to leave with you! I can't just abandon you!"

"God damn it, Pyrrha! Now is NOT the time to be a hero." Lich's leg gave way to the pressure as it began splintering so Lich was forced onto his knees. The ceiling slowly lowered forcing Pyrrha to slightly crouch.

"But Lich. I can't just leave you here all alone. I've seen what this place has done to you. All your suicide attempts. You don't deserve to be in here. C'mon. Just hold on to it for a bit longer. We'll think of something!"

"Damn it Pyrrha! We don't have the time!" Lich grunted as one of his arms let out a massive crack. "Look. I made the promise that you will get out of here safely. Look if you want to get into semantics or whatnot, see that bone shard. Take that and go. At least a piece of me will make it outside. Eh?"

"But that's not the same! It's not the same! It's just not fair to just have me escape! You are the one who deserves to go outside the most!" Lich's spine began to make increasingly louder cracks.

"Pyrrha. Please. Unlike you, I can't die. I'll be fine."

"Are you really?"

"Yes! I'll be a hell of a lot more fine than being forced to see you get crushed to death so close to escaping! I've already suffer through so much being trapped in here. Don't make me suffer even more by making me see you die. Just go. Get out of here. Chase your dreams. Maybe fall in love and raise some kids. Most importantly, get out of here and _LIVE._ Now, please. For me. Leave me." Pyrrha opened her mouth to argue some more, but one look at Lich's slowly breaking skull and the sheer desperation that seemed to leak out of his eye sockets convinced her otherwise. If she was to die here, Lich would truly never forgive himself. Her death would haunt him for eternity.

"Pyrrha. Please. I am begging you to leave me. Begging you." Lich trembled as his body slowly gave way to the ceiling.

"Lich. I will never forget you. Thank you so much, and I am so sorry for being unable to help you in return." Pyrrha's voice cracked as she picked up a couple fragments of Lich's body as she then made way over to the portal.

"No. Thank you for reminding me about living. It was a real joy traveling with you. Now, get out of here, and don't you dare come back here. Get out there and live your life." Those were Lich's last words before the portal sucked Pyrrha away, and a falling sensation overcame Pyrrha.

When she opened her eyes once more, the blue sky greeted her eyes. A soft wind blew ruffling her hair as she slowly stood up to survey her surroundings. The trees, the rocks, the birds. It seems she was back on North Mistral Mountain. The place in which her adventure has started. But Pyrrha did not care at the moment. This was a hallow victory at best.

Pyrrha curled up, and tears began streaming down her face. Pyrrha looked down at her attire as well as the bone fragments clenched tightly in her hands to remind herself that everything that had happened was not a hallucination. It happened again. Someone sacrificed himself so she could survive. She still wasn't strong enough. She was still weak. Some hero she was. She should just give up and… _Live your life._ Lich's last words echoed throughout her mind.

With a sigh, Pyrrha stood back up and brushed herself off. It wouldn't do to continue wallowing in her grief. He wouldn't want that as well. He told her to live her life, and so she will as she began her first step back into civilization.


	13. Volume 1: Epilogue

**Hello! I felt sorry for the super late update last time so I decided to update the next part of the story as fast as I could. It also helped that I wasn't suffering from writer's block like last time. This part of the story was turning out to be really long so I split it into two parts: Chapter twelve and the epilogue. I hope you enjoyed these two chapters.**

Epilogue

The sun has not even risen yet, but the critters in the forest had already awakened as they prepared for a new day. Some were foraging, some were hunting, some were eating. It was a usual calm early dawn in the forest. However, a bullhead in the sky ruined the calm as it landed in the forest.

A teenage girl that was about 17 years of age came walking out of the bullhead. She had a fiery red ponytail that fell down to her waist and piercing green eyes. A red, ankle-length sash was wrapped around her waist. Her attire and weapons of a short sword and shield resembled an ancient Greek soldier's appearance. She was also carrying a small satchel as well.

"Ms. Nikos! Please come back within an hour. We still have to arrive in time for the tournament!" Ms. Nikos merely replied with a double thumbs-up to her agent as she began her hike up the mountain.

Eventually, she came to a cliff that overlooked a stunning valley of trees and a lazy river. She came just in time too for the sunrise was just beginning as it slowly began shining its brilliant glow of soft red and orange upon the land chasing away the darkness. On the cliff was a small mound with a cross. Pyrrha proceeded to wipe away the leaves and debris from the mound before she sat down in front of the mound and began speaking.

"Sorry for not being able to visit you very often. Did you miss me?" Pyrrha paused a bit before beginning to speak again. "I know. I know. You are still walking around, but it really never settled with me how I just left you there so I buried your bone fragments to make this grave to honor you. I even made it with a beautiful view of this sunrise, too. You did mention that the first thing you wanted to see upon coming here was to see the sun after all. I also remembered how you said that you loved chocolate milk so look what I brought!" Pyrrha then took out a jug of Pete's good old chocolate milk. She then popped open the cap and poured a good amount onto the mound before taking a swig herself.

"I know you would be quite mad with me, but I sort of disregarded what you said and continued researching a bit about where you could possibly be. It ended up being a complete waste of time again. Nobody, not even the top scientists, has a clue of where you could possibly be, and there are absolutely no records that describe where you are trapped right now. It's just been dead end after dead end. I think you will be pleased to hear that I am giving up now. Like my therapist told me, it's not good to get obsessed over the past. From now on, I am going to focus more on living my life." Another swig of chocolate milk was drunk, and another good amount was spilled onto the mound.

"As for my destiny of becoming the strongest huntress the world has ever seen and becoming a hero, I am quite well on my way actually. You are now looking at the three-time champion of Mistral right now. Four-time champion if I win this tournament. Everyone views me as a celebrity now. Some are even starting to call me the invincible girl after I even managed to beat a professional Huntsman. Now that was a wild fight. What else… Oh yeah!"

Pyrrha rummaged around her sack before she pulled out a letter that had Beacon's emblem printed on the envelope. "Ms. Pyrrha Nikos. We are pleased to inform you that your overseas application to our academy has been accepted. Your skills and strength more than qualify for our prestigious academy, and we would be honored to have you as one of our students…. And then the rest is a bunch of application stuff that you probably don't want to hear."

"I know you are probably confused right now. Why Beacon instead of Haven. I do live in Mistral anyway." Pyrrha paused before she took another big swig from the jug.

"Ever since I attained celebrity status, everybody began to look at me differently. All my friends slowly started to distance themselves, and the first thing that many people say to me now is 'Are you, Pyrrha Nikos, the three-time champion?' or 'Are you the girl that is on the cover of the Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal?' That thing isn't even good for you since it has way too much sugar." Pyrrha took a deep breath before continuing.

"I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel lonely. Yeah, I know how ironic that is considering what you went through, but not having friends that treat me as just Pyrrha Nikos is really depressing in a way." Pyrrha sadly chuckled as she curled up her legs and rested her chin on her kneecaps.

"And that is why I want to go to Beacon. Since Beacon is in Vale, my reputation will hopefully not be as widespread so I might just meet someone who will treat me as me. Not as the three-time champion or the invincible girl. They won't try to befriend me to try to make use of my status or act all polite simply due to my status. They will befriend me for who I am. I feel really confident that I will meet that person in Beacon." There was another awkward pause as Pyrrha tried to maintain a smile.

"Sorry for ruining the atmosphere. Let's end this visit on a good note. Look at my red sash! I finally found someone who was willing to use the strings of the old red sash to make it all new looking like this. It looks beautiful, doesn't it? I never could bring myself to throw away that piece of cloth. It was my few reminders of you after all." Pyrrha took one last swig from the chocolate milk jug before pouring the rest on the mound.

"I wish I could stay and chat some more, but I have to go now. I have to make it in time for the tournament. Sorry for leaving so soon. This actually may be the last time I see you. After the tournament will be the final exams, then graduation, then off I go to Beacon. I'll try to visit you during my breaks, but I don't know if I would have time. I'm sorry." Pyrrha stood up and turned her back on the mound.

"Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of the sunrise Lich. I truly wish you the best from the bottom of my heart. If only… If only… I really wanted to see you happy too. I really wanted you to escape with me. Don't worry. I won't blame myself for it. You would hate to see that after all. So I'm going to look forward and live. Just like you wanted me to." With those words, Pyrrha refused to tun around to avoid showing the grave her watery eyes as she hiked back to the bullhead.

A bluebird landed on the tree close to the mound and began to sing a chirpy little song. Atop Lich's cross, a chipmunk began chomping away at a bunch of seeds it found recently. The maple tree began to slowly sway as a strong wind blew across the forest and blew off some of the dirt on the mound, revealing a small titanium box that pulsated with a black aura. The box began to pulsate at a faster frequency until a skeletal hand burst from the grave.

End of Volume 1

 **Psyche! Did I trick you guys into thinking that Lich was forever trapped in that cavern? Nope, Lich managed to escape in the very end. Now, comes the very challenging part of this story. It will now be entering cannon zone. So, now I have to decide how much I have to stay true to the cannon and how much I should diverge from it. It's really hard trying to decide to be honest since I am not that great of a writer. This is my first attempt at fanfiction after all. Also, the new season of RWBY started up so I probably need to wait for the season to finish up and watch the shows before I start writing the next part of the story. Thank you to all who managed to get this far into the story! Special thanks to** **merendinoemiliano for reviewing since the early chapters. It helped show that there was at least one guy who was interested in my story at the beginning. Well, onward to the next stage of the story. I have no idea when the next update will be though. Also, if there are readers who feel that it would be better if this story ended here just ignore the entire last paragraph.**


	14. Bone Trailer

**Thank you for all of you guy's support. It is surprising to me in a good way at how many people like this story. Since I have a lot of free time recently, I decided to type out this little 'trailer' for you guys. In my opinion, it is a good glimpse at the direction I am thinking of taking the next stage of the story. I'll probably stay true to the canon in the beginning, changing things little by little until it cumulates into a massive change. I'm still working out the details, and season 6 of RWBY is turning out to be a massive lore dump so I am kind of hesitant to keep writing lest the cannon screws me over somehow. As a result, I am not sure when I will update next.**

On a barren street late at night, only one shop was still open. Many had already gone to their homes to sleep to prepare for the next day. The moon shone its soft light down on the city providing an almost serene atmosphere. If one was to walk down this street, one could say that it was a calm peaceful night… until two people, a man in a black suit and a girl with a red hood came crashing through the window of the only open store with loud music blaring from the girl's headphones.

Her weapon a massive scythe slowly unfolded itself as her silvery eyes looked back inside the store. Realizing that her headphones were still playing, she turned them off and got into a battle stance, ready to take on the dust thieves. The guy with the orange hair and bowler hat chewed on his cigar for a couple seconds while tapping his cane. He then glanced at the girl before proceeding to glare at his remaining three henchmen. "Well? Get her."

The girl in red smashed her scythe into the ground and used her weapon as a pivoting point to round kick the first thief in the face. Before the other two could reach her, she used the sniper rifle portion of her weapon to quickly get into a better position in order to bat one of the men in the face with the pole portion of her scythe. She then continued with the momentum to kick the remaining thief in the balls.

Hearing the cocking of a gun, the huntress-in-training quickly utilized her speed to jump around before finishing off the last man with another strike to the face with her scythe. The orange-haired man sneered at the fallen men before saying, "You were worth every penny. Truly you were."

He then dropped his cigar before crushing it with his cane. "I had a lovely evening. Sadly, this is where we part ways Red."

His cane then popped up an aiming reticle before he fired a dust explosive. The girl was forced to jump in order to avoid the explosion allowing the man to run away to the rooftops. Noticing the criminal climbing up the ladders, she quickly glanced at the old store owner in order to ask, "Do you mind if I go after him?"

Right after the old man gave her a confused nod, the red clothed girl used the recoil of the rifle portion of her scythe to rocket upward to see that there was someone else with the escaping criminal. The other person was wearing full plate mail armor with four long mechanical arms that were attached to his back. Each of the arms had a four-fingered claw at each end that was snapping relentlessly. It appeared that they were actually conversing with each other.

"So, Roman Torchwick. It really was you that was behind all these dust robberies. I should have known since all those cases had your handiwork. What the hell happened to discreetness and only stealing the bare minimum. Why in the world do you need all that dust?" The armored man crossed his arms as he awaited an answer.

A tap. Pause. A couple more taps in quick succession. Pause. Another tap. Roman Torchwick continued tapping away at his cane as he replied to the armored man. "It's good to see you again after your arrest. I didn't see any wanted posters of you so how did you get out so fast?"

"Don't change the damn subject." The arms behind the man began to move restlessly making clicking noises.

"Well, you could say that times are changing my old partner. I can't say more than that sadly. Have to keep up the mysterious appearance especially for that _persistent_ young lady over there." Just when he finished speaking, a bullhead rose up from the side of the building. Torchwick quickly stepped in before saying, "But it is here that we must part ways. A pity that I cannot talk for much longer. It's good seeing you again Mr. H. Here, a parting gift."

Torchwick threw a large red dust crystal at their feet before shooting another round from the end of his cane. The girl cringed and put up her arms awaiting the explosion, but none came. When she looked up, she realized that the mechanical arms actually _caught_ the explosive round before it could hit the dust crystal. The armored man walked over and picked up the dust crystal before looking up at Roman.

"If that is the way you want to play, then fine." The man lifted up his arms, and a massive wind storm began rocking the bullhead, preventing it from getting any further. The scythe-wielder saw the criminal stumble around the bullhead as he shakily made his way to the cockpit. Soon, a new figure came out and began firing flames at the armored man.

Looking at the coming projectiles, the man calmly raised his hands and summoned spears of ice using them to intercept the flames. The mechanical arms dug out massive chunks off concrete from the rooftop of the building and hurled them at the bullhead. The mysterious figure summoned shields of flame to burn away the projectiles before countering with pillars of fire that erupted from beneath the man's feet. The armored man dodged the pillar with a couple calm steps to the side before continuing his barrage of attacks on the bullhead. As the exchange of attacks grew fiercer and fiercer, the girl began hearing some sort of music radiating from the man.

The girl was captivated by the exchanging fire before realizing that she should probably do something as well. She fired a couple shots at the bullhead only for even more massive circles of fire to appear all over the rooftops. The man realizing the danger quickly picked up the girl and jumped as high as he could in order to dodge the incoming firestorm, whipping up strong winds.

"Fucking hell." The armored man cursed as the winds became much harder to control resulting in the bullhead slowly escaping into the night.

"Not happening." As soon as he landed, the man tossed the girl aside before extending one of his mechanical arms. The claws opened as widely as it could as the center of the claw began glowing with a strong red glow. A second later, a massive red laser cut through the night sky sheering through one of the engines. Sadly, the bullhead was still able to fly away for some time before crash landing somewhere in the city park. The music soon cut off.

A sigh came from the man as he rolled his shoulders and sat down. He would leave it to the police and the other huntsmen to take care of the mess. Even if he tried to give chase, Torchwick and his acquaintance would have escaped by the time he arrived at the crash site. As soon as the man stood back up, he was verbally attacked by the very hyper energetic girl that was on the rooftop with him.

"That was so COOL! You were all like pow, bam, boom with your semblance, and your armor and those mechanical arms look awesome! What type of metal is it made of? I don't recognize it though. Is it some new alloy? Oh, why the armor though? Isn't armor redundant because of aura? My uncle told me that wearing heavy armor like that wasn't practical since it would just hinder movement and be useless since aura can do what armor was meant to do anyway. But, your armor looks so badass! You're a huntsman, right? Can I have your autograph?"

The man just stared at the girl who just rapid fired a bunch of words at him. He breathed in to say something, but he didn't even know where to start so he ended up just sighing. He really did not want to deal with this right now since he had a lot on his mind after figuring out that it really was Torchwick behind all the recent highly publicized dust raids despite it going against most of Torchwick's tendencies. The armored man looked back up to see the girl just bursting with excitement.

"I… uh… don't have a huntsman license so I'm not a huntsman." The man felt like chuckling at how fast the girl switched to a confused expression.

"But… If you aren't a professional huntsman, then how did you do all that?" The man began scratching his helmet as he tried to think of the best way to describe his messed up situation before he heard the clacking of high heels.

"Shit. It's that blond dominatrix." The red-themed girl looked up at him in even more confusion before the guy was kicked down by a blond woman wearing glasses and had a riding crop on her hand. She then proceeded to stomp on the back of the guy's helmet hard enough to crack the rooftop.

"I did NOT just hear you call me a dominatrix in front of a child." The man's response was merely to hold up the middle finger which the woman quickly smacked away with her riding crop. She then proceeded to look up and glare at the girl.

"And _you,_ young lady, are coming with me!"

A muffled voice came out from under the lady's heel. "You better run girl. Or else she will drag you to her sex dungeon."

SMASH!


	15. Chapter 15

**I now introduce the first chapter of volume 2 of this story. It is a bit shorter than normal, but I am taking the introduction a bit slow. Don't wanna cram too much into one chapter. With so many characters that need to be introduced into this story, I kinda got overwhelmed a bit. As a result, I focused on the new guy more than the already established characters. Also, I tried to make it** ** _really_** **obvious who this armored guy is. I don't know if I could have been more obvious. I mean even Pyrrha is already suspicious. Also, I never really like stories about adding an extra member to teams making 5 member teams. It just feels so shoehorned. As a result, I decided to make the new guy something like an assistant professor. Hmm… What else. Thinking of puns for what Yang is going to say is going to be brutal cause I suck at puns. I'll try, but no promises. Also, I don't know if fireworks exist in the RWBY canon universe, but in this story, it didn't until recently.**

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day onwards, you four will be known as team JNPR (Juniper). Led by Jaune Arc."

At the mention of this, Jaune's face went blank as he murmured, "Lead by?"

Pyrrha couldn't help chuckle in amusement and relief. Truth be told, she was afraid of being appointed as leader. For once, she wanted to avoid being in the limelight. It seemed that Headmaster Ozpin recognized that as well, and Pyrrha couldn't agree more with Mr. Ozpin's choice. Although Jaune may be physically weak for now, Pyrrha was confident that he could pull through, especially with that attitude of his.

In a short time, she has known Jaune during the initiation, she had already got a good grasp of his personality. Although it was strange how he didn't have his aura unlocked at first, they did make quite the team when they were fighting the Deathstalker together. She also admired how quickly Jaune put himself in danger to help out Weiss even if it ended quite poorly. In an added bonus, Jaune did not care about Pyrrha's status at ALL. In fact, he did not even recognize who she was at first. This made her incredibly happy that she had someone like him as her partner. Someone who was not interested in using her reputation and was more interested in who she was as a person. So far, it seemed that coming to Beacon was the right choice after all.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a good celebratory punch on his shoulder only for him to fall forward at the strength. She quickly sent a quick apologetic look at Jaune before smiling for Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang to come up on the stage to receive their team name, and Ruby to be appointed the leader. She noticed the look of disappointment that came over Weiss' face at Ruby becoming the leader. Pyrrha hoped that it wouldn't become a point of tension between the two.

"Before I conclude the annual initiation ceremony, I would like to introduce one more person. This year we have the honor of having a student-professor enrolling with the first years."

Upon hearing the words student professor, Pyrrha's ears perked up in interest. She noticed that everyone else was paying close interest as well. Except for Jaune. He looked pretty clueless which actually made him look pretty adorable.

The reason why the words student professor drew such interest was that of how rare they were. Student professors were usually people from outside the jurisdiction of the four kingdoms, but they were as strong as professional huntsmen. However, since only graduates from one of the four academies could be actually considered professional huntsmen, they have to attend four years and graduate at one of the four academies. The only problem was that they would be too strong to be placed as a normal student, resulting in their status as a student-professor. Since their skills were already up to par with those of a huntsman, they would be mainly focused on assisting teachers in their curriculum in some circumstances outright teaching a class as well as helping out students. Since these types of people were extremely rare, when they did appear, it drew a lot of interest.

"If you would please step forward Mr. H'Cil Mai." Pyrrha blinked in astonishment at the name and choice of attire of the person. He was completely decked out in full plate mail armor with four long mechanical arms folded up behind him. It reminded her of Lich in a way, except...

When the man took off his helmet, the first thing Pyrrha thought was that this man did _not_ look healthy or even alive. He had sunken cheeks, really stiff black hair, and dead-looking eyes. After a quick look around the room, the man put on his helmet for he realized that he was drawing stares.

"Hello. Yes, my name is strange for I can see the confusion in all of your faces. I am perfectly fine with being called Mr. H."

Upon hearing the man's voice, Pyrrha's heart clenched up. It was such a similar voice to Lich's voice. However, this man wasn't a skeleton though. Quickly, Pyrrha shook her head. Lich was gone. She had to accept this. It wouldn't do for her to get all depressed again.

"Mr. H'Cil Mai. It is an honor to have you in our school." Ozpin and the armored man shook hands before he disappeared back into the crowd.

"I would also like to make an announcement regarding the statues that are currently being erected in Beacon and the city of Vale. Thanks to Mr. H, we were able to discover an ancient ruin with these beautiful statues. We thought it would be a shame to have them simply gather dust in the storages and our museums aren't ready to handle such a large amount of statues that we have decided to showcase them in our city and school to represent our respect for the arts and crafts. Please _avoid_ defacing these statues."

Ozpin then closed the initiation with these parting words. "It looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year."

After initiation, a wild party broke out at one of the ballrooms next to the dorms despite classes starting the next day. Huntsman and huntresses in training were dancing, drinking juice, and generally going crazy. Ruby was shyly drinking some sort of punch next to the refreshment table. She just finished speaking with Pyrrha and Jaune before they had to go restrain Nora from breaking down a wall who was screaming something about pancakes. Just then, a thud came from under the table. Curious, she looked under the table to find H'Cil crouched up attempting to hide.

After a quick look around, she decided to crawl under the table and join him. She heard Mr. H's helmet turn to look at her. "So, what are we hiding from? Is this some sort of game?"

Mr. H merely chuckled. "Ah, it's just that I kind of got sick of all the people asking me questions. Had numerous requests for duels. Had some people asking me if I was going to teach any classes."

"Are you?"

"I am planning something, but it needs some preparations."

"Is it going to be a weapons class?"

"No. Sorry, I can't tell you much about it because it is going to be a nice surprise. Well, maybe not so nice, but it is going to be a surprise." Ruby giggled before replying that she was looking forward to attending his class. The man's response was a shrug.

"So… You somehow impressed Ozpin and got into school two years early right?" Ruby nodded at his words unsure of her situation.

"Yeah, it's great, and it's my dream school and all, but I can't help but feel that I am not ready yet." She looked up in surprise to see Mr. H pat her knee.

"Heh. None of us are ready for a lot of things. What matters now is what to do with the hand dealt with you. It only means that you have to work harder, and I am sure that you will be able to break through whatever obstacle in your way if you set your mind to it. You even have me as your friend! Even though I wish we met under better circumstances like NOT befriending each other in a jail cell… Either way, life is just unpredictable like a month ago I didn't think I would be going back to school as a student-professor."

"But that is a great thing, isn't it? Not many people can get into one of the academies as a student-professor since it is really hard to find a student who already is on par with professional huntsmen. You must be amazing to be able to be this good at such a young age." There was a nervous chuckle at the last words.

"Yeah… a young age. Yeah, I am totally young."

"How old are you?"

"How old do you think I am?"

"You sound like you are about 20."

"Then I am 20 years old."

"Really?"

"Well, that is what is on the ID that I got from Ozpin." There was an uncomfortable silence that settled between the two under the table. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Mr. H continued the conversation.

"I hope Glynda didn't scold you too much."

"Oh no. It was fine. It was just a small scolding. It was nothing compared to what she did to you anyway." Mr. H tilted his head at the memory before shrugging.

"Oh, she means well. It's just that she was in a really bad mood that day from all the paperwork that she had to deal with plus me running off with no warning. I'm sure the school insurance can cover that giant hole in the wall."

"Are you sure? Your limbs were all pointing the wrong way…"

"Please. That is nothing. I've gotten my arms chopped off before." Ruby nervously looked at Mr. H's arm before he reassured her that it wasn't anything serious and that he was able to reattach the arm with no difficulty. However, speaking of arms reminded Ruby of Mr. H's unique weaponry.

With growing interest, Ruby began touching the mechanical arms that were on the man's back. "Do you mind telling me about your weapons? You wouldn't tell me about them at the jail cell because you were afraid of the other prisoners overhearing us. But since there is nobody else here… I have never seen anything like it, and that says a lot since I am something of a weapons addict after all."

Mr. H merely chuckled as he slowly extended one arm in the cramped space and laid it over their laps. "Well, the thing is that I just didn't have the training for the convertible weapons that are so popular. It felt too bulky and awkward for me to use. Not that they are bad or anything, but I couldn't fight to my full potential with them. Also, no weapons could handle my strength for too long so I have to replace them often. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem, but you know how ridiculously expensive weapon materials can get, especially the dust converters. As a result, I began to do some brainstorming and after thinking of a villain from a fictional story from my hometown, I decided to create a weapon similar to that villain's weapon."

"You based your weapon off a villain?"

"Well, my fighting style tends to be aggressive. I do best against opponents who are defensive against me. As a result, I needed a weapon with a fear factor that will make people want to fight more defensively against me. Villain weapons tend to have that fear factor after all. Another benefit is that I don't use these arms directly so they last a lot longer than something like a sword." Mr. H absently rubbed the bottom part of his helmet.

"But what about the metal? I've never seen this alloy before."

"What are you talking about? This is the standard titanium alloy."

"You won't fool me like that. The titanium alloy is merely the thin outer layer. When I first met you, I noticed that some parts of the outer layer got stripped off revealing the inner metal. I also tapped your weapon, and the sound was not the sound of the titanium alloy. I know what it sounds like since I worked with it."

"Clever girl. Alright, the titanium alloy is merely the thin outer layer. The inner layer is actually a new metal that was recently discovered in my old home. It is a magnesium alloy. It took me a while to replicate it, but with the help of a bunch of resources and a bunch of time on my hands, I was able to replicate it. Sort of. I also have a layer of depleted uranium as well." Ruby jerked her hand back and looked up at him in shock.

"You have depleted uranium for _body_ armor? Isn't that incredibly risky if it splinters and enters your body?"

"Don't worry. I do have some precautions to it."

"Is that why you look so sick?"

"… Not really, but sure. Let's go with that."

"I remember you shooting a red laser from one of your mechanical arms. What type of battery do you use? What is its penetrating power? Ooh! What is its range? It seemed to be able to fire quite a distance." Mr. H merely sighed at the rapid-fire questions that Ruby was asking. She always ended up in this state when talking about weapons.

"Let's just slow down. I am going to be completely honest with you. I did not make the laser. Someone else did. It has an effective range of 750 meters with an exponential drop of energy after that point. Its penetrative power differs based on how much Dust I use."

"Do the other arms do anything?" Mr. H laughed at how close Ruby was as she tried to grab the other arms.

"Yes." Before he could say anything more, he heard the yelling of a certain blonde girl. "I believe your sister is calling for you."

"Oh well, it was nice talking to you. I look forward to attending Beacon with you!" Ruby was about to crawl out before the tablecloth was suddenly pulled up and a girl's face peered in.

"Ah Hah! So this is where… What were…? …. Oh. Oh! Ruby. You just grow up so fast." The teenager began making mock sniffling sounds, but there was a small glint in the blonde's eyes.

"Yang! It's not like that! We weren't doing anything except talking!" Ruby's face glowed red as she desperately tried to convince her sister that absolutely nothing happened under the table.

"Oh, really?"

"Really!"

"And what about you? I'm not sure I can trust your _metal (mettle)_ if you are letting only my sister defend herself."

"Heh. Good one." Yang's eyes widened when Mr. H did not groan like her sister just did but actually complimented her.

"Oh, don't be so surprised. I have a high tolerance for these things. When you go through the shit I went through, your puns are not that bad in comparison." Yang smiled.

"You. I like. Instead of my sister, why don't we make out instead?" She then proceeded to put an arm under her boobs to emphasize her cleavage in a teasing manner. Ruby facepalmed as she watched her sister try to make fun of her friend.

"Are you alright? Does your chest hurt?" At these words, both girls looked up at the man in disbelief.

"Are you being serious right now?" Yang spluttered this out and let her hands drop down.

"No. I am actually kind of offended if you think that I can be teased so easily." Yang smiled deviously at the challenge.

"Oh, playing hard to get. You know, that only makes me want to try harder just so I can get a rise out of you." It was at that moment that Mr. H began laughing uncontrollably as he began slapping his knees as well.

"Hahaha. Oooh. Hahaha. That is freaking hilarious. Haaa. Oh, never mind me. You won't get the irony of this situation. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go prepare the fireworks."

Ruby perked up at the word. "Fireworks?!"

Fireworks were something recently invented by a mysterious man about 8 months ago. They were extremely limited in stock, and nobody knew how to make them except the creator. However, after a month of selling the fireworks, the creator mysteriously disappeared, resulting in a massive price increase on any unused fireworks. The reason why fireworks were extremely difficult to reproduce was that Dust was not a material that easily dissipated once activated. As a result, it was incredibly dangerous to use them as a decorative explosive since it would result in bathing its audience with fire, ice, boulders, or water. The researchers are absolutely puzzled over how this man was able to reproduce the explosive visual effects of the dust without the other more destructive effects. So far, nobody was able to replicate the fireworks.

"Yup! Ozpin gave me permission to set up a fireworks show to celebrate this year's new students. You guys are in for a treat. In a couple of minutes, there will be an announcement in your scrolls to go out into the courtyard for a night show. If I were you, I would gather your team and friends and grab all the good spots first."

"But how did you get your hands on fireworks? How rich are you?!" Ruby was practically shaking the man at this point.

"Would you stop that? I do have money, but I am not that rich. Besides, I am the creator of the fireworks anyway so no need to buy them." Yang and Ruby's mouth dropped at the revelation. They were right next to the man responsible for the huge media rage about half a year ago with everyone desperately searching for the creator of the potentially revolutionary invention.

"You… You are the creator! Oh my Oum! This is so amazing! How did you do it? What type…" Suddenly, Ruby was rudely pushed to the side by her white-themed partner.

" _You_ are the creator of the fireworks? Why, it is a great pleasure to meet you, Mr. H." The girl raised her hand to shake with Mr. H.

Mr. H cocked his head at the rude introduction of the girl. He ignored the outstretched hand, and even though he knew who the girl was, he asked, "And who might you be?"

"Ah, how rude of me. My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." The man paused as he repeated the name, rolling it off his tongue.

"I see… By any chance, do you know of anyone named Dr. Seuss? Cause the name 'Schnee' sounds like something he would write about." Weiss gave the armored man an extremely confused stare.

"Excuse me?..."

"Never mind. Ignore the ramblings. I already knew who you were. You are also Ruby's partner, are you not?" Weiss cringed at the mention of her partner, but she quickly tried to cover it up with a smile, but Mr. H was fast enough to catch it.

"Why yes! However, that's not important." Mr. H tapped his leg in disapproval. He already knew that he wasn't going to like this girl. It seems that his hopes that she was different from her father were falling short. It seems that she had the sin of hubris that ran in her family including her sister. "I couldn't help but overhear that you are the creator of the fireworks. You must have an excellent understanding of dust if you were able to create something so…"

Mr. H raised his hand to cut off Weiss's flattery. "I already know of Atlas's and your father's attempts to find me and recruit me. I will stop your attempt…"

"That's not it!" Mr. H cocked his head in interest.

"Oh? Then cut to the chase. What do you want from me?" Weiss squirmed under the harsh tone of Mr. H. He seemed very approachable when he was talking with her teammates, but it seemed that he made a 180 degree turn when it came to her.

"Oh… I just wanted to see if throughout the school year you would be open to discussing dust-related subjects…"

"You will have to forgive me, but my knowledge of Dust is quite rudimentary so I will not be able to help you as much as you think." Mr. H then turned to the two sisters and said in a far more upbeat tone, "Well, I have to go prepare now. If I were you, I would get ready right now if I were you. I recommend the little hill by the fountain. That will have the best angle."

Mr. H then walked away, leaving behind a stunned Weiss. Ruby tried to comfort her partner, but Weiss shook off Ruby's attempts and stormed off. Yang watched Ruby chase after Weiss before deciding to take Mr. H's advice and secure the spots before it was too late. She sent a text to her partner Blake telling her to meet up near the fountain.

Off to the side with a book in hand, Blake was watching the retreating form of Mr. H vanish into the crowd with great interest. Or rather, her bow began twitching as she was listening to his footsteps. They sounded… hollow. Was Mr. H secretly a Faunus like she was? It would explain his sudden shift in attitude regarding Weiss. Blake filed away her curiosity for later for she really did not want to miss the fireworks show. She read about how pretty they were, and she wanted to experience it for herself.

She then walked up to one of the statues that Mr. Ozpin mentioned during initiation. It was a plain marble statue that depicted a soldier with a spear and shield. It bore a remarkable resemblance to Pyrrha's outfit. Blake moved back and forth in front of the statue's eyes. She couldn't help but feel that they were watching her.

A couple of minutes later, all the students received a text on their scrolls stating that there will be a show that will begin in the courtyard. Murmuring between each other and with curious glances, the students all began walking outside. Pyrrha and Jaune had just finished placating their teammate and was now currently walking towards the courtyards with Nora and Ren right behind them.

"Fireworks. Wow. I can't believe the school had enough money to buy _fireworks_." Jaune murmured this in amazement. Usually, fireworks were reserved for the elite class parties due to their rarity and limited stock.

"Actually, there is a rumor going around that Mr. H'Cil Mai was the creator of the firework so he made a couple to celebrate this year." While Lie Ren was restraining Nora, he overheard a couple of conversations regarding such a possibility.

"Bah. Fireworks are just fireworks. What I could really go for are firework pancakes! A massive explosion with debris being pancakes." Lie Ren gave his signature blank look to Nora.

"I'll be sure to bake some for you in the morning."

"Great!"

Jaune leaned over to Pyrrha and whispered, "What's so special about this Mr. H guy? Do you think the rumors are true?"

Pyrrha thought about the initiation ceremony, and her quick glimpse of Mr. H. "Well, he did manage to get on par with the skill set of a professional huntsman without formal education so he may have a couple tricks up his sleeve. Who knows? Maybe the school has a connection with the creator. Although I look forward to seeing fireworks again."

"You've seen fireworks before?!" Nora practically screamed this out as she shook Pyrrha for confirmation.

"Uh… Yes. It was when fireworks first came out. I was there when they did a demonstration at the annual Dust Technology Convention. It was only a couple of fireworks though. Not enough to be called a 'show'."

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by someone screaming his name. He turned around to see Ruby with her teammates on the hill near the fountain. Weiss was sitting with a large frown on her face while Blake was laying down with a book in front of her. Yang was... Well, she was looking at a statue of a naked man flexing his muscles... More of looking at the statue's poor representation of a dick.

"How is that a dick? It looks more like the middle finger..." Yang flipped the bird and began comparing her hand to the statue's dick.

"Over here! We saved a good spot."

Team JNPR quickly navigated through the crowds before plopping down next to where Team RWBY was sitting. Jaune noticed Weiss' mood and was about to say something to cheer her up, but Weiss cut him off.

"Can it vomit boy. Don't want to hear it right now." Jaune looked with confusion to Ruby, but she merely mouthed 'later' to him.

"Do you have room for one more?" Eight heads turned around to see Mr. H approaching them.

It was Ruby who spoke first. "I thought you had to go set up the fireworks?!"

"I already set them up. Now, I just have to enjoy the show. I programmed them to start in about 2 minutes from now." With a metal clang, he sat down next to the group. He gazed over the two teams with a lingering gaze on Pyrrha.

Surprisingly, Blake put down her book and scrutinized the new member. "Is there something on my armor to warrant such a strong look?"

"Why the armor?"

"Ah. It looks cool?" Everyone but Ruby gave the man a blank stare.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. Especially you three girls." Blake, Pyrrha, and Weiss looked up in confusion.

"What in God's name are you girls thinking about fighting in _high heels_ of all shoes? Those are like the last shoes you should be wearing when fighting! You three should be the last people criticizing me for wearing armor." Blake and Weiss shrugged and murmured 'fair enough'. Pyrrha merely remained silent before correcting Mr. H.

"I wasn't criticizing you. I knew someone else who wore armor, but he wore it to hide something." An awkward moment fell over the group with everyone other than Pyrrha and Mr. H squirming from the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"Yes. Pyrrha. You are right. I am hiding something. But what could I be hiding?" Pyrrha grinned before asking if that was a challenge.

"You can interpret it any way you want. However, everyone has a reason to hide something. You would do well to remember that." Blake looked incredibly uncomfortable at this point. Out of everyone, it was Ruby who waved off the tension.

"Okay! I think the fireworks are going to start soon."

It was at this point that brilliant explosions of green, red, and white dyed the dark night sky. The shattered moon seemed to blend in with the splashes of color that complemented the night sky. White, yellow, red colors contrasted with the black sky. As soon as one explosion ended another began. Every single person was holding their breath at the magnificence of the fireworks. Of course, it ended with Team JNPR trying to restrain Nora from doing her own "fireworks". It was quite the way to start off the school year for all the freshmen.

"Well, I think it's safe to say this school year starts off with a YANG!"

"Yang!" "Hehe."

"Oh, this will be interesting indeed." Mr. H looked up at the shattered moon. "Very interesting."


	16. Chapter 16

**Another chapter is up now. Weiss's bitchiness won't change. The reason is that it was a huge character development point for her. I will try to tone it down (I don't like the bitchiness too), but it is such an integral part of Weiss's character development that I am loathed to change it. The * markers are places in which some songs will be played. I thought it would be a good idea to add in what songs are playing when Mr. H fights. The songs will be in chronological order. I hope you get all the allusions here.**

 ***Edvin Marton- Tosca Fantasy**

Pyrrha was carefully drying her hair after her morning shower. Ever since the time in the caverns, Pyrrha's sleep pattern was forever changed. She used to be a heavy sleeper, but after being subject to numerous ambushes, the slightest deviation in noise and touch could send her wide awake. In addition, she never got over the habit of having her weapons right next to her.

As a result, at 5 am in the morning, Nora's snoring and kicking caused her to become wide awake. Vowing to buy earplugs as soon as possible, Pyrrha decided to be the first one to use the shower. After taking her sweet time in the shower, Pyrrha's hair dryer woke up Ren who slowly got up like a zombie and entered the bathroom. By the time, Ren left the shower room, Pyrrha was putting on some light make-up. Hearing the window opening, Pyrrha turned around and blinked in surprise. Ren had set up some sort of portable stove and was currently cooking pancakes… in their room.

"You really weren't kidding when you promised Nora that you would cook pancakes." Ren merely shrugged as he began adding chocolate chips into the pan.

"Ever since we were kids, Nora loved pancakes. It eventually became a habit for her to have pancakes every morning. I don't know if the school has pancakes in the cafeteria for breakfast so I'm cooking them just in case. I hope you don't mind this." Pyrrha shook her head.

"No. No. It's fine. Not every day someone decides to cook something in the middle of this one room dorm." Pyrrha and Ren shared a grin until their team leader Jaune woke up in his cute little bunny onesie. She attempted to hide her smile but failed.

"Do I smell pancakes?"

Pyrrha and Ren looked at each other before replying, "Yes."

"Why do I smell pancakes?" Pyrrha laughed before telling Jaune to take off his hood.

"Oh." Ren gave Jaune a small nod, but Jaune was too sleepy to even care.

"Jaune. If I were you, I would get up and take a shower. Depending on the day, Nora can spend an incredibly long time in the shower. I am getting the feeling that today is one of those days." With a nod of acknowledgment to Ren, Jaune literally crawled out of his bed toward his bag and then shuffled toward their bathroom. Pyrrha silently watched him enter before turning to Jaune.

"I'm guessing Nora isn't a morning person?"

"No. With a big N."

"Thought so."

"It appears that you are the only morning person here."

"Not really. I like to sleep in. However, I am a light sleeper, and if I am awakened by something, it takes a while for me to fall back asleep." Ren paused as he contemplated Pyrrha's words before freezing.

"Did Nora's snoring wake you?" Pyrrha looked up guiltily.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? It should be her partner who should be apologizing right now."

Pyrrha paused. "It became a small habit of mine after losing someone important."

Ren didn't say anything after that. He of all people knew the pain of losing a loved one. It wasn't in his business to pry deeper. An uncomfortable silence came over the room until Jaune burst out of the shared bathroom, steam pouring out from the doorway.

"Ah. That hit the spot. Nothing like taking a good shower in the morning to wake you up." Jaune then proceeded to walk over to his bed and began tidying up his things, completely oblivious to the tension. Jaune then turned to Ren and asked if he had enough pancakes to share with everyone. Pyrrha smiled. Intentional or not, simply leave it to Jaune to break any sort of tension that might settle between team members, reinforcing her belief that she had a good team. So far, no one has mentioned her celebrity status and was treating her as merely Pyrrha.

After setting aside a massive pile of pancakes for his partner, Ren then began handing out everyone else's share of pancakes before sitting down on his bed with his own plate. Pyrrha took a bite, and her eyes widened in surprise. Ren was surprisingly a good cook in regards to pancakes. Was he good at anything else? Pyrrha filed away the question to ask at a later time.

"Wow. These pancakes are amazing. Can you cook anything else?" Or perhaps not since Jaune seemed to beat her to the punch.

"I've had a lot of practice with pancakes, but I can cook other foods. I think I can cautiously say that I am a decent cook. My other dishes might not be as good though since I haven't had too much practice with other foods." Jaune nodded at Ren's words.

"Better than me. I remember how my sisters ran me out of the kitchen after almost burning it down. What about you Pyrrha?"

"I can gut and skin wild game very well, and I can cook meat without charring it. Does that count?" Jaune smiled at that.

"So you have good hunting skills. That's cool. Who taught you?"

"My father taught me how to gut and skin the wild game, but it was a huntsman who taught me how to make traps and track animals. Cooking meat… well.. it isn't that hard, to be honest."

"You had training with a huntsman?"

"Not much combat training though. It was only some small wilderness stuff." By this time, everyone had finished eating their pancakes. Ren threw away any scraps into the trash before going into the bathroom to wash the dishes leaving Pyrrha and Jaune alone in the room with a still snoring Nora. Pyrrha decided to use this time to arrange her belongings in her side of the room. None of the four brought too many items so it wasn't hard to fit everything into their one dorm room. Jaune soon copied Pyrrha in cleaning up his own stuff as well.

"I know I said this multiple times already, but thank you for helping me out during initiation." Pyrrha smiled at Jaune's thank-you.

"And I will tell you multiple times, your welcome. You looked like you needed help so I helped. It's who I am after all." Pyrrha paused before adding, "I really don't mind that I am partnered with you Jaune. Even if I ended up back in time, I wouldn't have partnered with anyone else. I would still have gone back to you so stop feeling guilty."

"Are you sure? I remember Weiss saying something about how you were some sort of champion and how you deserved a partner that complemented your achievements, not drag you down." Pyrrha sighed at Jaune's crush at Weiss. He was taking her words far too seriously.

"Well, I am not Weiss. I get the final say on who I want as a partner, and I wanted you. Don't sell yourself short. Even though your fighting abilities may need some improvement, your heart is in the right place. Sometimes that is more important. Oum knows the sheer amount of arrogant people I've had to deal with during school and the tournaments." Jaune gave a huge grin in return before another massive snore from Nora prevented him from saying anything else.

"Shouldn't we wake her? It's getting awfully late… We'll be late for class if she doesn't wake up soon." Pyrrha eyed Nora warily. Her instincts told her that trying to wake up Nora was a bad idea.

"Jaune… wait." However, by then it was too late. When Jaune tapped Nora's shoulder, Nora shot up and nailed Jaune in the chin with a powerful uppercut sending a few feet into the air before he collapsed on the floor unconscious. Hearing the commotion, Ren rushed out, and with a nod of sympathy and gratitude towards his injured team leader, he began preparing Nora for the day by finding her toiletries and change of clothes for her.

Pyrrha rushed towards Jaune and checked him for any injuries. It turned out his aura absorbed most of the blow so he should only get a small bruise in return. If anything, his wound was already healing. The only thing now was to wait for him to wake up. It was when Nora finished her shower and pancakes that Jaune woke up with a startle.

"Bunny murderers!" The rest of his team gave him odd looks.

"Oh. Ehehe." Jaune sheepishly scratched the back of his head, but Ruby came to his rescue. She came bursting in and shouted, "We're going to be late!"

At that moment, everyone checked their watch and paled even further. They then busted out of their rooms and followed team Ruby to their next course. Watching the running teams was Mr. H, Glynda, and Ozpin.

"Ah… To be young again." Mr. Ozpin watched the running students with nostalgia. Mr. H, on the other hand, was chuckling like mad.

"Hahaha. Suckas!" Glynda cleared her throat.

"Mr. H. You do realize that you share their schedule." Mr. H sniffed.

"You think I didn't know that. I'm purposely going to enter the class late. Not like it really matters anyway."

"You being late will mean detention with me."

"Awesome. More time to piss you off." Glynda's eyes narrowed before she flicked her riding crop causing a massive crater to appear right next to her. Mr. H took that as a cue to start running. She then turned to Ozpin.

"I will never understand why you hired a _criminal_ to our school. Aren't you worried that he will put everyone here at risk? You have to know of his reputation in the underworld. It's something you should be worried about." Ozpin stared at the running form of the armored enigma.

"I understand your concerns this time Glynda. I really do. If I didn't know that he had good in him, I wouldn't have invited him to our school." Glynda looked at Ozpin incredulously.

"Did you know he donated large sums of money to orphanages and schools for the at-risk children? Granted the money he gave may not have been clean, but he helped many out of a tight spot."

"So? He may have merely done that for the tax loopholes and gain sympathy in the courts."

"Did you know how he was recently caught?"

"No."

"Well, that was the deciding factor in admitting him to my school. Do give him a chance. Besides, he would make an extremely powerful ally. From what I have seen, he is stronger than Amber when she was at her prime." Glynda looked at Ozpin with wide eyes. Ozpin didn't wait for a response as he wandered off sipping from his coffee mug.

"Ozpin. Are you serious? Ozpin. Ozpin!"

Pyrrha was dying from boredom from the last class of the day. She could feel her fingers losing their strength from all the attempted note-taking. She could feel her ears rotting from listening to the unceasing droning from Professor Port. She could feel her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

As Pyrrha took a slow look around, she realized that everyone else had a similar expression. Jaune was already out cold despite her numerous attempts to keep him awake. Ren was trying his best to prevent Nora from busting out of her seat. Team RWBY wasn't doing much better. If anything, it looked like Weiss was going to explode while she was staring at Ruby goofing off. The only person who looked perfectly fine was Mr. H. However, she was convinced that underneath his helmet he was taking a nap. Now Pyrrha herself wanted a helmet as well. Just so she could lean back in the chair and close her eyes, and no one would be the wiser.

"Now the moral of this story? A true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise. So who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits." As soon as Professor Port finished his speech, Weiss's hand shot up as fast as possible and practically screamed, "I do sir!"

"Well then. Let's find out. What better way than having you spar against Mr. H? It will be a great experience for you all would it not? To have a taste of what a true huntsman could fight like." Pyrrha stood up straight and leaned forward in anticipation. Now, this was something she could stay awake for.

Everyone's eyes widened when Mr. H walked out of the changing rooms with a plate strapped to his chest plate. While everyone else's eyes may have been from surprise, Pyrrha's eyes widened in recognition. Weiss was also surprised that Mr. H chose a rapier just like her for his weapon.

"It wouldn't be fair if I fought at full force. That is why the conditions are different. I will handicap myself by using a weapon in which my opponent has a higher mastery of as well as lowering the conditions of a win for my opponent. All you have to do to win is crack this plate. I win when I shatter your aura or you yield." Weiss blinked in pleasant surprise when Mr. H saluted her before entering an En Garde stance. She quickly reciprocated. It seemed that he was quite well-educated on etiquette…. Unlike her partner Ruby who was obnoxiously cheering her on.

"Quiet Ruby! I'm trying to focus."

Weiss decided to make the first move as she lunged for the plate; however, she blinked in surprise at how fast Mr. H moved his rapier to block it. Weiss had to awkwardly twist to dodge the counter. She quickly jumped a couple paces back and began watching her opponent warily. He was extremely fast. That would mean…

Weiss quickly summoned a couple of speed glyphs in an attempt to take him by surprise, but Weiss was awarded nothing but a punch across her face. She quickly got up, and Weiss was slightly angry at herself that she was unable to make him move even a millimeter. Realizing that she wouldn't beat Mr. H in a fair fight, she decided to adopt a hit and run tactic instead. She summoned a couple of glyphs to confuse the direction she would attack in as she zipped around him attempting to find a chink in the armor. For every attack that failed, she added more speed glyphs in an attempt to beat him in speed. Soon, some sort of violin music* began coming from Mr. H, but Weiss was too focused to notice. A couple of minutes in, Weiss found little success. Every lunge was countered with a swipe, punch, and kick to her body. If anything it was Weiss who was losing more aura every time she attacked.

Ruby then shouted, "Mix in some ranged attack against him! He doesn't have a ranged weapon right now!"

Weiss growled back at her partner to be quiet. However, she heeded Ruby's advice as she took a couple steps back and began bombarding Mr. H with a couple of ice beams, forcing him to dodge and move around. Something Weiss has failed to do with any of her previous attempts. Seeing this, a plan began forming around Weiss, but her thoughts were interrupted by the music suddenly changing to a more ferocious louder tone. Confused as to why there was music playing, Weiss stared at Mr. H.

"Ah. It's something that is included in my semblance. Now. Let's get a bit more serious now, shall we?" Mr. H burst forward and shortened the distance in the blink of an eye with the wind whipping up around the room over the sudden movement. He then proceeded to stab Weiss multiple times before she even realized what just happened. Everyone in the class was shocked at the sheer speed that Mr. H just displayed. His attacks and movements were simply a blur to those who were not paying close attention.

Realizing the situation that she was in, Weis made a desperate block against the rapid stab towards her stomach. Shocked, Weiss realized that she couldn't keep up with Mr. H's attack at ALL. She was completely unable to block nor dodge.

"Is this guy even human?" This thought ran through everyone's mind at that moment. Weiss was brutally pushed towards the brink. Realizing that she was going to lose, Weiss made one last desperate plan. She abandoned all finesse and practically jumped at Mr. H. He responded with a punch to the face resulting in Weiss's aura shattering, but Weiss flicked her high heels at the last second. The shoes twirled in the air, and the sharp end hit the very edge of the plate, chipping it.

The entire room was silent save for the crashing sound of Weiss who was sent flying a couple feet into the air. Professor Port happily reported, "Draw! An excellent match. My. It seems we truly have aspiring huntsmen and huntresses in this class this year."

"Professor Port. It seems the spar lasted longer than usual. If you would like, I could finish up the class for you, allowing you time to make it to your next class with the third years. If I recall, that class takes place in the Southern Emerald Forest." Mr. H offered while he was helping Weiss get up. He was also tapping a couple buttons on his scroll.

"Why thank you! I was worried about that. Well then, I'll leave it to you." Professor Port quickly grabbed his bag and weapons and ran out of the room. "I hope you have a wonderful time at Beacon youngsters!"

Everyone then turned their attention to Mr. H. He coughed into his hand before saying, "Professor Port is a good teacher, but his speech is quite… boring, isn't it?"

Snickers answered Mr. H's question. Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was one of the janitors with a stack of papers. "Thanks, Citron."

"No problem." Mr. H then began handing out the papers to everyone in the class.

"Mr. H., What are these papers?" Blake was the one to ask what everyone was thinking.

"Well, while I was sitting in this room today, I noticed how many of you were not really paying attention, and all of you were struggling to make sense of what Professor Port was even saying with all those tangents he went on. So, as a student professor, one of my responsibilities is providing adequate assistance to the other students. Since this is the first day, I decided to help you guys out by compiling the important bits of Professor Port's speech today into a little cheat sheet. This is only for today so don't ask me to do this in the future." The way everybody's faces including Weiss simply lit up was something that Mr. H wouldn't forget for a long time.

"Oh, my Monty! Thank you!" Ruby was so happy that she practically tackle-hugged Mr. H. Nora, Yang, and some other girls joined in on the hug sending him crashing down.

"Yes. Yes. You're welcome. Now get the hell of me." Mr. H joked before walking out. "Have a good rest of the day."

Ruby turned toward Weiss to say something, but she already left the room without a single word to her team. Slightly miffed, Ruby chased Weiss outside the room.

Pyrrha saw Ruby leave the room after Weiss and cringed at the loud voices that came from the hallway. She then turned towards her team with Nora who was trying to act out the fight between Mr. H and Weiss. Ren was simply taking Nora's antics in stride while Jaune had a dreamy look on his face. Most likely crushing on Weiss once more.

Pyrrha was glad that her team didn't have many problems like Weiss and Ruby. Nora's antiques were funny and made every day something to look forward to. Ren may not speak much; however, he was always watching for ways he could help out. Pyrrha remembered today's dust class in how Ren quietly slipped Jaune the directions on mixing the proper dosage for today's assignment. Jaune was the glue that held the team together, helping to break uncomfortable silences, being a fair judge on any disagreements, and always open to help. Without him, she highly doubted that Ren and Nora would be as open with her. So far, the first day of classes at Beacon was VERY productive.

Pyrrha's mind soon wandered over to the fight between Weiss and Mr. H. His fighting style was frightfully similar to Lich's style, and the way the music randomly started in the middle of the fight… Something wasn't adding up here. Was H'Cil Mai Lich? However, he wasn't a skeleton. Under the helmet, there was a face.

Should she confront him about being Lich? However, that doesn't make sense. If he really was Lich, why hasn't he approached her yet? Weren't they friends? Didn't their time in the caverns mean anything? Why would he simply hide like this?

"Pyrrha? Pyrrha!" Pyrrha's train of thought was interrupted by Jaune who was looking at her with a concerned face. "Are you alright? You looked like you were concerned about something."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just thought Mr. H's fighting style was similar to someone I knew." Jaune nodded in understand before listening to Nora complain about how hungry she was. Pyrrha decided to push this matter to the back of her mind. She could worry about this later.

After dinner, Pyrrha decided to go to the rooftops for some fresh air. Perhaps even watch the sunset. Pyrrha was surprised to see Mr. H talking with Weiss about something serious. Pyrrha leaned in closer to listen in on their conversation.

"So because of all those traits that you believe you have, you think that you would make a better leader than Ruby."

"Yes!"

"You know… those traits you mentioned… If a leader only had those traits, intelligence, well-educated, wise, dependable, honorable, and strategic, you think that the leader would be a good one?"

Weiss confidently nodded. Mr. H then turned around to stare at the setting sun. "Well, I beg to differ. If I heard that a leader only had those traits, I would be worried about one thing. I would be worried if that leader was a tyrant."

Weiss looked shocked and was about to say something, but Mr. H lifted his hand and stopped her. "Now, not all tyrants have those traits, but those that don't tend to overthrown really fast. If you look at history, the real dangerous tyrants were those with those traits you mentioned. If you look at good leaders of history, not all of them have those traits you mentioned."

"Then, what makes a good leader?"

Mr. H laughed. "I am hardly qualified to tell you that. Truth be told, that is something everyone must find themselves. In fact, you should take EVERYTHING I say with a grain of salt since I never really experienced this stuff. However, I will share an excerpt from a story from where I was from with you. There was someone who was uncertain if he was a good leader. On his orders, many of his comrades died, but using their comrade's death, others were able to escape a dangerous situation. As he was contemplating his position, one of his closest friends sat down next to him and told him that he was a good leader because he was weak. Because he was weak, it made him sympathetic and alert. How he was just like everyone else. Now, interpret that story as you want, but I think that experiencing what it is like to be a follower would be a good stepping stone for you in becoming a good leader Weiss. Perhaps that is what that Ozpin that old bastard was thinking when he made Ruby the team leader."

Weiss went quiet as she contemplated the words of Mr. H. He decided to give the girl one last push. "I'm not looking down on you. I'm pretty sure that many people have told you that you wouldn't understand their feelings because you had everything handed to you on a silver plate."

Weiss looked up at Mr. H in shock. "Looks like I was right. I'm not going to tell you that because I know that is not completely true now that I've talked and sparred with you a bit. It is true that you had all MATERIAL desires handed to you on a _gold_ plate, but I can tell that there were some strong emotional struggles. I know your father. Met him a couple times for some jobs. He is not the fatherly nor the family type, is he?"

Mr. H placed his hands on Weiss's shoulder. "Give Ruby a chance. She might surprise you in the end. Who knows? If anything, you should take this as a chance to explore yourself. You're not burdened with leadership which should free you some time for self-improvement. Don't cry over spilled milk, and make do with the hand you are dealt. Just because you complain doesn't mean that anything will change."

With those parting words, Mr. H walked away. Pyrrha quickly hid behind a bench as she watched Mr. H go down the stairs. Weiss, on the other hand, went completely still before she walked like a zombie to the railing to stare at the last few minutes of sunlight. Soon, Weiss herself went down with Pyrrha hoping that she will make up with her team leader. Realizing how late it was, Pyrrha herself decided to go down to her dormitory to do her assignments. When Pyrrha arrived at the dorm, she found her team members packing up for a trip to the library.

"You guys are going to the library on this first day?"

Ren shrugged. "It was Jaune's idea to get used to using the library as fast as possible. I can understand the reasoning. Also, we don't have computers in our dorms, and some of these assignments I would prefer to use one instead of a scroll."

"Sounds good." Pyrrha quickly grabbed some of her textbooks and placed them in her backpack as she quickly followed after her team.

Pyrrha was surprised to see Ruby and Yang at the library and less surprised to see Blake. With a nod to the members of RWBY, team JNPR found an empty table next to the computer lab and began working on some assignment. Professor Port's assignment was a breeze thanks to Mr. H's cheat sheet so they were able to finish that first, but the others took time. Pyrrha found herself spending much of her time teaching Jaune the basics. She was really starting to wonder how Jaune got accepted in the first place before squashing those thoughts. He probably did something exceptional like Ruby. If Ruby can get into Beacon, then anyone else could.

As the time ticked away, Pyrrha went to find some other textbooks that could help her with the last problem to Dr. Oobleck's assignment. Something about the Faunus War. As she browsed through the history section, she saw Blake tucked away in one of the corners, reading some type of book. Taking a quick glance at the cover, Pyrrha looked away and while searching through a textbook, "I never knew you were into smut."

Blake spluttered and looked up in shock. "You know what I'm reading?"

"Oh please. That was the number one book in the erotic list for 4 years in a row. How'd you like the 'katana' picture?"

Blake gave a wry smile. "It's pretty big."

"Would you want that trait with your boyfriend?" Blake blushed and looked away.

"Maybe. Why are we even talking about this in the library of all places?"

Pyrrha realized how uncomfortable Blake looked. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable. It really isn't my business to ask that here of all places. But… What type of book are you reading in the library, Blake?"

"Fair enough."

"Did you seriously read that during Professor Port's lecture? I knew that the notebook in front of you seemed a bit too big."

"Yes…"

"Wow. It seems you don't know the meaning of NSFW."

"I can hide it."

"Whatever you say. Uggh. Not in this book, too."

"What are you looking for?"

"The answer to the last question to Dr. Oobleck's assignment." Blake nodded before walking over and picking out a medium sized textbook.

"It's on page 430 of this textbook." Pyrrha nodded in thanks as she quickly read the passage and memorized the contents before returning the book. With the necessary information, Pyrrha finished up her assignments. As she was finishing up and walking towards her dorm, she noticed Ruby and Yang laughing over something, earning a wrathful glare from the librarian. Walking over to see what was so funny, it seemed that the two sisters were writing some sort of code to each other.

"Is that the assignment for language class? Making a code?"

Ruby gave a thumbs up before replying, "Yup! We also found that it sounds hilarious when you actually say it backward. Here."

Pyrrha giggled at Ruby's example of saying Dr. Oobleck sounds like a sugar crash waiting to occur. When Pyrrha looked over at Yang's examples, it was safe to say that some of them were borderline appropriate. Suddenly, Pyrrha stopped at one of the sentences and ripped the sheet from Yang's hand for closer scrutiny. She ignored any shouts from Ruby and Yang.

She then rushed out of the library towards the teacher's lounge and barged in. If she was paying any attention, she would have noticed the awkward atmosphere in the room. Extremely awkward and very tense. Almost as if there was a corpse in the room. There were five people sitting at a table with cards and a pile of candy. Mrs. Goodwitch was staring daggers at Ozpin promising murder while the man in question was looking pleased with himself. Professor Port's eyes were as wide as saucers, and his mustache was drooping down. Dr. Oobleck was taking a _long loud_ sip from his coffee while Mr. H was shaking with his hands across his face.

Pyrrha ignored whatever was going on and tapped on Mr. H's shoulder. "May I speak with you, Mr. H?"

"Sure. It looks like it will take a moment for this to disappear." Mr. H made a motion with his hands to gesture at the table occupants.

As soon as they walked out of the room, crashes and screaming came from the teacher's lounge with cries of mercy. Pyrrha ignored the commotion, grabbed Mr. H's arm to prevent any escape attempts, looked him in the helmet, and asked, "H'Cil Mai. Backward, it says I am Lich... Lich. Is it really you?"

 **Congrats on anyone who got all the allusions. Also, a little interlude now. Hope you have a good laugh.**

 _What the teachers were doing before Pyrrha busted in_

"So remind me why we are playing this awful, insensitive card game again?" Mr. H took out a card and placed it in the middle of the table before replying.

"It is the tradition for teachers to play a set of cards after the first day of school. _Someone_ forgot to bring a deck of cards, but then Mr. Port saw me carrying around a deck of cards, and he ignored all the warnings from me. So, here we are playing _Cards against Remnant_. A parody of a card game from my home."

Professor Port took that time to defend himself. "I truly didn't think that this was what you meant by the card game being offensive, considering all forms of gambling is offensive. Although… to be honest, this card game does have its charms." He followed this up with a nervous chuckle.

"ImustsaythatIamquitegladthatnoneofthestudentsknowwhattheteachersareplayingrightnow."

Ozpin chuckled at Dr. Oobleck's words. "Yes. It would be quite difficult to explain to the students."

Glynda sighed at Ozpin's words. "And yet we still insist on continuing to play this game."

"I will not give up those limited edition coffee suckers. You are free to give up if you choose Glynda."

"And give you bragging rights for the rest of the year. Not a fat chance Ozpin."

"Alright then. The card this time is 'For my next trick, I will pull out a (blank) out of (blank)." Once Mr. H got all the submissions and after a quick shuffling of the pairs of cards, he began reading the cards.

"I choose this one. For my next trick, I will pull out (the dick of Jacques Schnee) from (a Faunus stripper)." Mr. H paused as he allowed his selection to sink in. Professor Port opened one of his eyes while Glynda was glowering at the cards. Dr. Oobleck was simply playing with his own deck of cards while Ozpin was simply sitting there with the same old smug expression.

"Why thank you, Mr. H. This puts me in the lead now."

"NotforlongOzpin. I'llregaintheleadsoon."

"We shall see."

The card czar was now Professor Port as he pulled out the next template. "I am loving the feeling of (blank)."

After a few moments of consideration, Professor Port said, "I am conflicted between I am loving the feeling of dust-powered vibrators filling up my asshole, and I am loving the feeling of child cum."

Mr. H spoke up. "Child cum sounds more offensive."

"And so it does. Child cum it is then." Glynda experienced an awkward moment when she should be happy that she was closing the distance, but it did not feel like a win at all.

Ozpin took out the next template card. "Instead of candy, our neighbors give out (blank) to children on Grimoween."

Another pause and some cards are handed out. One of them makes Ozpin laugh so hard that he almost falls out of his seat. He then takes a picture of it on his scroll before sending it to someone. "This one. Instead of candy, our neighbors give out replicas of James Ironwood's prosthetic penis to children on Grimoween."

Professor Port gladly accepted his point with a jolly laugh and then waited for Dr. Oobleck to pull out a card. "Themeaningoflifeis(blank)."

Oobleck did a quick scan before placing his hands on his choice. Professor Port stopped laughing. "ThemeaningoflifeissettingachickenFaunusonfireandcallingithotwings."

Glynda breathed a small apology to one of her students before a cold feeling settled over her as she realized that it was now her turn. "When I was tripping on acid, (Blank) turned into (blank). Oh no."

Glynda looked up to see the men grinning savagely as they handed out their choices. With a sigh, she read out the choices and slowly began reading them expecting the worst. "When I was tripping on acid, the questionable business documents of Jacques Schnee turned into furry porn shoots. When I was tripping on acid, the Daddy issues turned into consensual sex. When I was tripping on acid, The Great War turned into the sexual tension of the century. When I was tripping on acid, the headmaster of Beacon turned into the most infamous pedophile on Remnant."

After reading the last one, Glynda could not stop laughing. When she finally calmed down enough to look at the face that Ozpin was making, Glynda was sent on another laughing spree. It took her a while until she managed to calm down enough to say, "The last one. It has to be the last one."

"Yes!" Mr. H fist pumped, and Ozpin gave the most withering glare he could give Mr. H. "No offense, but you do kind of dress like a pedophile."

Glynda took that moment to say, "I told you that you need to change out your wardrobe Ozpin."

After seeing the face that Ozpin gave in return, Glynda went into another laughing fit. She then took that moment to snap a picture of the card and Ozpin's face. It was too precious to lose.

"My dear Glynda. You will regret this."

"Oh please. I'd love to see you try to top this one. I'm not famous like you anyway."

Ozpin turned towards Mr. H. "Draw."

Mr. H complied. "I really want my (blank) to (blank)."

Once the cards were sent in, a quick glance made Mr. H look up at Ozpin with respect. "Damn Ozpin. You've got balls alright despite knowing the temper of your secretary."

Glynda made a guarded expression. "What did he choose?"

Professor Port realizing that things might go very wrong tried to stop the coming train wreck. "Perhaps we should simply call this a draw."

Ozpin held up his hands and patted Mr. H on the shoulder. "Read it."

"Alrighty then. I really want my super horny secretary to orchestrate a BDSM orgy that caused the moon to explode with disgust."


	17. Chapter 17

**Glad to hear that people are still reading my story and enjoying it. Thank you for your support. I have a lot of time this month so somewhat quick update. Also, I would like to clarify that Lich is not getting nerfed. It only feels like that since he is facing stronger opponents while restricting his strength. Well, onwards then.**

 ***Fairy Tail "Fairy Law" OST**

Mr. H… No. Lich paused as he stared at Pyrrha. He ignored the screaming and the punching sounds that could be heard from inside the teacher's lounge… Well, he tried to. Suddenly, the walls shook accompanied by the sounds of someone attempting to run toward the door, but then the sounds of dragging could be heard.

"Let's go to my room. We can talk more there. Not here." Convinced that he wasn't going to run off or disappear like in her dreams, Pyrrha followed Lich to the… student dorm rooms? She looked up at Lich in confusion.

"Yeah… My room is actually in the student dorm rooms. The reason is I lost a fight with a stupid crow. However, in my defense, his semblance of bad luck is absolute bullshit. I was about to win, but then a stupid monkey busted out of nowhere, threw shit at me, then ran off. I then proceeded to slip on a banana peel, and BAM I lose. Even now, I am still wondering where the hell that monkey came from."

After the door clicked open, the duo went in, and Lich activated some sort of device. "It's an audio disruptor. I know that Ozpin bugged the entire school."

Pyrrha sat in an empty seat near the table at the center of the room, crossed her arms, and stared at Lich. He took the seat opposite to Pyrrha. "Sorry that I don't have any refreshment. I should really buy some. Not for me, but for any guests."

She did not even grace a response. "Yeah. I'll start. Yes. I really am Lich. I came back about a year ago thanks to you."

Pyrrha cocked her head to the side in surprise. "But I didn't do anything."

"You did actually. You see as soon as I 'respawned', I hunted down my box. Gave that asshole a good beating. However, after a couple months, I could feel some sort of tug on my heart. As if someone was calling me. I didn't think anything of it until low and behold, some years later, I suddenly teleport into a grave meant for me. It turns out that the amount of sentiment you poured into that grave with those bone fragments was enough for my box to pinpoint and teleport to." Lich then leaned over and grasped Pyrrha's hand.

"Thank you. _Thank you_ so much for helping me escape. I don't care if it was unintentional, but thank you." Pyrrha's hard expression slowly faded away only to be replaced by tears.

"Damn it, Lich. I really thought I would never see you again." She then could not take it anymore as she dove across the table and tackled him to the floor hugging him as hard as she could despite him wearing plate mail armor.

"Do you have any idea how many nightmares I suffered because I abandoned you that day? How many 'what ifs' went through my mind? Why didn't you come to find me as soon as you came back? It shouldn't have been very hard!"

"I'm truly sorry I couldn't come to you sooner, but I was ashamed. Really ashamed."

Pyrrha looked up in confusion as she wiped away her tears. "What?"

"You have to understand that I was in a world in which I had no identification, no papers, no job, and no flesh _._ I had no intention of going to the authorities to be handed over to some scientists to be used as a lab rat. However, I had nothing but my bones and my box. So on the practical side, I ended up having to go to the illegal side to get things done."

"What do you mean by illegal side?"

"Robbery and assassinations..."

Pyrrha froze and looked at him in shock. "You've murdered people?!"

"The first time was in self-defense. It was the very first day in civilization for me, and I wanted some sort of disguise to hide my body. I ended up going into a warehouse filled with drugs, and a bunch of mafia members was meeting there. Have you seen the news report about the mysterious Warehouse Massacre at Port 11?"

"Wait. That was you?"

"Yes. And as I was killing people, I felt absolutely nothing. It must have been the time I spent trapped in those caverns. I truly felt nothing. I felt nothing as I zipped around crushing people's innards. I felt nothing as I kicked in the heads of people begging for mercy. I just treated everything like it was a game…." Lich paused as he cautiously looked at Pyrrha. Her expression was that of horror. Despite that, he continued.

"Eventually, a rival mafia gang found out about me, and they were impressed. They didn't care that I was a literal walking skeleton. They thought it was my semblance or what not. They offered me a deal that was really hard to refuse. They would forge me an identity and offer me resources and connections. It was... a really good deal. All they asked in return was that I do some… "jobs" for them. And that was the beginning of my career in the underworld about a year ago. I've robbed, I've murdered, I've extorted money, and I've tortured people… I've done some really nasty shit, and I didn't really give two squats about it."

"Then, why are you at this school? Don't tell me that it is because you are planning something?"

"Oh no. You see… I've… kind of cut my ties with the mafia I worked for. I'm what you could say… retired? I have connections with some people really high up, and they know and trust me enough to know that I won't open my mouth so… yeah. It was about six months ago that I snapped out of it. It was a job of breaking into a prison in Atlas to break out some important people with sensitive information. I was hacking and slashing my way through the prison guards until I heard crying noises from one of the rooms I cleared out. I went back in to find a little girl crying over the dead body of what looked to be her father. I later found out that that day was 'bring your child to work day', and the man's wife died from cancer a year ago." Lich let out a shaky breath before he continued.

"As I stared at the girl, I thought about you Pyrrha. And it was a wake-up moment for me. Yes, this world is not my world, and it means nothing to me. Yes, I have ridiculous OP powers, and I can do whatever the hell I want. However, this is _your_ world Pyrrha. I was ruining the world you lived in. I remembered your conversations of how you wanted to make this world a better place, your dream of being a huntress and the reasons for it, and look at what I was doing. Going on murdering sprees and turning children into orphans…"

"I guess it was at that point I just stopped. I couldn't ruin this world… the world of a person who has helped me through so much. The person who has helped me escape a horrible hell. It… I am so sorry. I truly am." Pyrrha leaned forward and stared into the slits on Lich's helmet.

"It's not really me who you should be apologizing to. You should be directing them to the people you've actually hurt."

"I know. It's why I started donating a bunch of money. I've stockpiled quite a large amount anyway. Might as well use it. I even started pulling in some favors. Asked the people in high positions about my plans for retirement even though I've only been working for like 6 months... But I accomplished lots so I more than repaid them. They helped me get some jobs that will slowly phase me out of the more… bloody jobs. I even tried going into business with those fireworks, but I realized that people get noisy with pasts so I had to pull out fast. I eventually got paired up with this guy named Roman Torchwick."

Pyrrha raised her eyebrow. "Isn't he the guy…?"

"Yes. It's him, but something is very wrong. You see. That guy's specialty isn't thievery. He is good at thievery, but he only takes the bare minimum. Never more. If anything, theft is more of a side hobby for him. He hates attention because that is what gets the authority on your ass, and he likes having a nice quiet peaceful life. In fact, what he really specialized in was pimping."

Pyrrha coughed as she almost choked on her own spit. "Excuse me?"

"I thought it was kind of obvious. He is a pimp. Not a thief."

"I… Okay. You do have a point." Pyrrha thought about the pictures shown of the infamous dust thief recently. He did look like a pimp if one thought about it.

"So yeah. Something is very wrong. I don't know how much changed since I got arrested, but this is not how he usually acts. And my last meeting with him confirmed my suspicions. Someone is forcing him to do this. And that someone must be someone very powerful because Roman Torchwick likes his freedom."

Pyrrha was slowly massaging her head. "I'm sorry. This is just a lot to take in right now. Let me get this straight. You've worked for the mafia. You snapped out of it. You worked with a pimp, who is now a dust thief because someone is forcing him to. Now, you are saying you've been arrested?"

"Yes. I was arrested trying to save an orphanage from a fire that was caused by a stray Molotov in a gang fight. The cops noticed who I was, and I got surrounded. I didn't feel like murdering more people who had families waiting for them to come home so I let myself get caught. I could easily escape anyway. All I had to do was lay down at the bed as a skeleton, and all the guards shit their pants thinking I escaped. My skeleton body gets thrown out, and voila! I am free again. It was at the jail I met Ozpin, and he was the one who offered the position to me. Either that or I face court charges for forgery. The courts couldn't nail me on anything else due to lack of evidence cause I clean up very well. I was going to decline his offer because I was not getting good vibes from him, but then as I was looking through the class rosters I saw your name… Even though I was ashamed… I really wanted to meet and say thank you. So, after some thought, I decided to leave the decision up to you. I'll change my name to something obvious, and if you ever confront me about being Lich, it would show that you still wanted to find me… to meet me. That you would potentially care less that I was a criminal."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "Wow. That is quite the story Lich, and… why? Why did you have to turn to crime?"

"I truly am sorry. I wasn't really thinking straight when I got out. I was drunk on my freedom, and I… It was hard. After you left, I could feel my darker thoughts coming back. When I got free again, I just wanted to just… go wild. This isn't my world anymore, and I'm not really completely alive so…"

"Is that excuse supposed to give that poor girl's father back?"

Lich leaned back in sadness. "No. I highly doubt that the large amount of lien I left in her name would be much of a consolation either. At the very least, I made sure that she will have no financial difficulties. But I am serious about this. I am done with crime. Ozpin did give me a way out after all. In fact, I haven't ratted out any of the mafia members so they trust me enough to not send hitmen after me."

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "Of all the ways that I imagined meeting you again, this is by far the worst way possible."

Lich had the decency to look down and only looked up when Pyrrha smacked him on the forehead. "If this was anyone else, I would never forgive them for this, but you… In recognition of the time we spent together and the fact that I know that you are not completely mentally sound, I'll give you one chance. Do you swear that you won't go back?

"I swear, and I keep my promises. I am a man of my word, and it is one of the few reminders of my humanity so I'll be damned if I break it."

"Good. At least, you are now somewhere I can keep an eye on you. Well, you are at a school helping to teach the next generations of huntsman and huntresses. I guess that is a good first step to redemption?"

"Not redemption. Never liked that word. What I have done… Heck, any crime that anyone commits can never be redeemed. The best word would be forgiveness. This is a good first step toward forgiveness. Also, Pyrrha… This may not be the best time to tell you this, but I really want to repay you for all the things you have done for me. I truly do. That's why I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that you achieve that goal of yours. Everyone in Remnant will remember Pyrrha the hero. You helped me with my dream of escaping. Now it's my turn. I swear to help you become the hero you want to become. So that in your death bed, you can say you had a satisfying life." Lich chuckled at the last sentence and extended his hand for a handshake.

Pyrrha smiled and shook his hands. "Deal. Now let's talk about something else. I think that's enough serious talk for today. Let's talk about how you got your body back."

Lich cocked his head in confusion. "I didn't get my body back."

"But… during initiation, you…"

"Ah. Here. Better to just show you." Lich walked to a place with bright light and took off his helmet. Pyrrha scrutinized the face until she realized why his face looked so unnatural. It was never natural for it was not flesh. She walked up and placed her hand on his cheek.

"Is this rubber?"

"Movie magic. Using my connections, I met up with someone in the movie industry. She was a make-up artist. Paid a hefty sum for her to place a human make-up over my skeleton body. It isn't perfect so I wear a helmet to avoid showing my face for long periods of time. Nobody is really expecting my face to be fake so as long as it isn't scrutinized, no one will know."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. Truth be told, the woman did an amazing job with the make-up. If Pyrrha wasn't actively looking for a fake face, she would most likely have missed all the signs. "Where do you hide your box then?"

Lich took off a necklace from under his armor. There was a ridiculously tiny box at the end. When he took it off the chain, it grew to a normal size. Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Well, that's new."

"I know right. A lot more convenient. I have a question though. Have you seen one of my keys? When I came into this world, only 3 came with me. I can't seem to find the fourth one."

"What? How did you lose it? Are you sure that the key stuck on the box isn't it?"

"No. The key in the box was when someone stole my box and unlocked one of the locks with my key. By the time I took it back, the key wouldn't pop out."

"So that means you have two keys that are on that key chain, and one key that is stuck in the box. You have _no_ idea where the fourth key is?"

"I don't know. I had it with me, but when I popped out of that grave, I was missing a key."

"Sorry. I haven't seen one. If I do, I'll be sure to tell you though." Lich nodded in thanks before he reached into a pocket and took out one of the said keys.

"Here."

"Why?"

"In case you are ever in danger. I'll know and track you down. I've managed to get you out of the cavern. The least I can do now after all the horrible things that I've done is help make sure that you live a long fulfilling life. You are the prime example that I am capable of doing good. It is a good reminder for me."

Pyrrha accepted the key, and the key glowed as it acknowledged its new owner. "So does this key grant me any special powers like the box."

"How the f- freaking am I supposed to know?"

Pyrrha lifted her eyebrows at the sudden change of words. "Why the sudden attempt at cleaning your vocabulary?"

"When Glynda threatened to shove soap down my throat. Can't have her ruining my make-up. Also, I might as well act a little like a teacher while I'm serving my time here. Hard to remember though."

"So did you accept this job only for me then? Cause it really sounds like you don't want to be here."

"Yes. You are literally the only reason why I am here. Pyrrha. I am worried about you. Seriously, the survival rate for huntsmen is 50 percent. _50 percent._ That means half of your class will end up dead after graduation. When I learned these statistics, of course, I got scared as hell. I can't lose you Pyrrha. Heck, you are the only one keeping me sane, to be honest."

Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "I don't think I am that important to you though."

"No seriously. You are a living reminder to me that I am capable of being kind and that this world is worth living in. Pyrrha, you have to understand that my time in the caverns really did a number on my sanity and morals. It really screwed up my mind."

"Don't exaggerate…"

"Pyrrha… I've had urges to burn down a store with everyone trapped inside because the guy next to me wouldn't shut his mouth. If you are sane, you don't have those urges."

"No… I have urges to want to strangle stupid people at times as well…"

Lich shook his head. "No. These were _urges._ Not just urges. I _really_ wanted to do it. The worst part is that I knew that it wouldn't matter jack squat to me. Like how are you going to punish me huh? Shove me into a prison? Good luck with that. Also, this isn't my world. I can't help but think that I am in a video game. The urge to just go on a destruction run is really over whelming at times. Like what has this world done for me huh? Kidnap me and made me insane that's what."

Pyrrha watched with concern at Lich during his rant. "However, I keep reminding myself. _You_ live in this world. _You_ care about this world. _You_ helped me during a dark time for me. If you care for this world, I will hold off my more… darker thoughts."

With a careful step forward, Pyrrha gave Lich a small hug. It was obvious that Lich was struggling with his situation even after he escaped. He was in a completely foreign world after all as well as missing key aspects of his humanity. Pyrrha would never truly understand his pain, but all she can give would be her sympathies.

"Sorry about that." Pyrrha gripped Lich's hand even though she knew he wouldn't feel it.

"Don't apologize. Sometimes it is important to let it out."

"Yeah. It did feel good."

"So, I'm guessing that nobody in this school knows you are a literal skeleton?"

"No. Just you."

"Would you prefer I keep it that way?"

"Yes."

A small pause hung in the air. "So… Four-time champion huh? I guess you really enjoyed beating up lesser skilled opponents."

Pyrrha rubbed her neck sheepishly. "It's not like I _wanted_ to do the tournament four times. I realized that the tournaments weren't that much of a challenge after the first one. I was planning on going into an internship in the Mistralian Justice Department, but… It was just circumstances."

"Oh really? Enlighten me of these circumstances."

"The second time was that there was this bully at my school. She had good connections and money so it was hard for many teachers to punish her. In addition, she was also in the top ten in our school. When I heard that she was going to try out for the tournament, there was just no way I was letting someone like _her_ win and allows her to inflate her ego even more. The fourth one was more of I needed money to pay the tuition for Beacon."

"The third?"

"I can't tell you."

"Does it have anything to do with the secret service?"

Pyrrha paled. "How did you know that? Oh, right. Yeah. I guess you do know about that then."

"Yeah. Mafia tried to rig the tournament that year. Congrats on taking out a rogue huntsman by the way. I saw a recording on Scroll tube. That fight was amazing."

Pyrrha blushed from the compliment. "Ah, it wasn't really much. My semblance makes a lot of these fights super easy."

"I could tell." Lich's voice suddenly took a more annoyed tone. "I know that you are a teenager, and I know how sensitive teens can be with clothing, but I have some complaints about your combat attire. It seems that my lectures about wearing proper armor fell on deaf ears."

Pyrrha vehemently denied Lich's accusation. "No! I still wear armor! It's just that I wanted to look good in it as well!"

"Your so-called armor leaves the belly and the chest _wide open_."

"It still protects a good amount!"

"Fine. What about that mini skirt? Why are you wearing a mini skirt?"

"It was a friend's recommendation! I wasn't going to be the only girl in my entire school dressed up like an old grumpy soldier!"

Lich contemplated if he should tell Pyrrha that there were panty shots of her floating around in the dark web. He decided not to. Besides, he has already taken out many of the people responsible for those pictures and shut down numerous porn sites with the help of Torchwick. He was more than happy to help take out any competition to his business. Perhaps it was best if he preserved her innocence a bit longer.

"You know what. I don't care. You are old enough to make your own decisions. Just know that I do have your back. Now it's getting late, and I don't want to make your team worry. See you tomorrow, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha nodded before she walked away with a small wave. Lich watched her go to her dorms before he opened the window and climbed onto the rooftop. As he sat down looking at the physics-defying shattered moon, he contemplated the message that Roman sent him during the last meeting. When Roman tapped his cane, it was to the Morse code that Lich taught him when they were partnered. He gave four words. Vale in danger. Help. It seemed that Lich was going to get busy if he wanted to keep Pyrrha safe.

Roman Torchwick groaned as he sat in his chair. The bullhead's crash landing was not smooth, and he was pretty sure that he injured his back muscles. While he grimaced in pain, he heard the snapping sound of a scroll.

"Yeah, yeah. Take pleasure in my discomfort. Neo, you are a bitch you know that?"

Neo quickly typed out something on her scroll and sent it to him. After reading the message, Roman snorted. "Don't flatter yourself. You are only the shoddy replacement. Your predecessor was infinitely better than you. He even helped with paperwork."

Neo gave a look of disbelief. "It's true. That guy was a paperwork machine. Man. Those were the days. Then, he gets arrested, I'm now stuck with you, and I've got a fire bitch running me up the wall."

"And I will have no problems smearing you across the wall if you don't step up your game Roman." Torchwick groaned as he heard Cinder Falls enter the room.

"Look. I am _trying_ , but all this publicity has been really making it hard. Do you have _any_ idea how much security has been beefed up around all the dust stores and reserves? I may be an excellent thief, but I am not a miracle worker."

"Perhaps, you just need some motivation." Cinder raised a flame-covered hand.

"Woman!" Torchwick slapped his desk for emphasis. "I am trying. However, I am lacking men and resources to pull off this plan on time. I'm also trying my damn best to keep the bigger plan a secret. Not only that, _he's_ out of jail and working at Beacon. If the authorities decide to send him of all people after us, we are screwed."

"You don't need to worry about huntsmen. I am strong enough to take care of any team that comes after us." Roman laughed at Cinder's ignorance.

"I know that you are all new to the underground, but that guy is seriously bad news. Everybody who is in organized crime knows about him. Showed up a year ago out of nowhere, and he made a big name for himself in less than 4 months! Hell, I am surprised that Ozpin even offered him that position because the rumors about him are nasty. The worse part is that many are true."

Cinder scoffed, believing Roman to be exaggerating. If there was one thing she learned about him, it was that he was a coward and lazy. She has lost count of the number of times she had threatened to dispose of him.

"You know those statues they are putting up around the entire city and the school?" Cinder nodded. She read about it in the news. Something about Mr. H finding ruins filled with those statues. Cinder was cautious about these statues at first because she thought they were surveillance equipment at first. However, after some investigation, it was merely dust infused statues that were extremely fragile. One crack and the entire statue just melted into this goop.

"There are bodies in those statues." Cinder lifted her eyebrows.

"He told me himself you know. You see that sick fuck was heavily into human experimentation. He would kidnap the homeless, rogue huntsmen, people who got in his way, or some other poor bloke that no one would care about, and then he would… I'd rather not go into detail about what he did. As a result, he had a huge stockpile of bodies. You know what he did? He entombed them in those statues. Something about it being art. I'm telling you. He is _really_ bad news. He is not someone you want to be on the bad side of. For crying out loud, the mafia leaders practically bent over backward to avoid pissing him off."

"So you are telling me that this Mr. H stockpiled _thousands_ of dead bodies and shoved them into statues, and now the city is literally setting up _thousands_ of dead bodies all over the streets and parks, including a school. That is what you are telling me."

"He had a really sick sense of humor."

It was safe to say that Roman had mixed feelings about Mr. H. If he was on your side, he was a godsend. Roman was able to aggressively expand his business with him at his side. Any threats were quickly disposed of, and Mr. H was amazing at numbers and organization. However… Roman shivered when he was present at on of Mr. H's interrogations. The screams… The burning of flesh. The way Mr. H force-fed the victim's own flesh to that poor man. When Mr. H was allowed to be insane, he was _insane_. You don't fuck with Mr. H.

Roman looked at Cinder. "Look. I've seen how strong he is. You _will_ lose if you fight him. Monty, he's cleared out entire max security prisons of all the guards by _himself._ Don't base your opinion of him during that first fight with him. He _always_ goes easy on first fights with unidentified people."

Cinder Falls contemplated what Roman said. It was hard believing that there was someone who was able to rival a _maiden's_ power. Albeit, Cinder does only have half of a maiden's power, but she was also highly skilled and trained, unlike her predecessor. Cinder's master has been very helpful in unlocking many of her powers. Whoever this Mr. H man was, he would never hold a candle to her master. What is a man to the devil's incarnate?

"I don't care who this Mr. H is. There are far more dangerous monsters than an unhinged man. All I care about is that…"

Roman interrupted Cinder. "The Dust is collected in time, and _I_ am telling you that I don't have the men and resources. This is what I will need. How are you ever going to collect this?"

Cinder looked at the paper that Roman handed over. The money and military equipment would not be any issue. Cinder's master had vast resources that she would willingly give out in order to execute her plans. However, human resources would be the problem…

"The men… Do they _have_ to be human?" Roman shrugged before answering.

"Human, robots. I don't care. I only need them for mainly grunt work. As long as they can do grunt work, we'll be fine." Cinder nodded at Roman's words and walked away. Roman watched her go before he sank into his chair and rubbed his eyes.

"Damn it. I really hope you got my message."

A statue of a man holding a book watched over an arena that was meant for sparring between huntsmen. Glynda Goodwitch was in charge of teaching the youngsters fighting skills. Mr. H was off to the side tapping his foot in disapproval as Glynda was giving her speech about the expectations and rules of this class.

Mr. H did _not_ like the education system for the huntsmen. Huntsmen and huntresses, in general, were highly independent and strong-willed people. Sadly, one of the consequences was that this mindset was reflected in the education system as well. Regarding combat, there was no standardized form or style of combat that was taught at all. In fact, the students were expected and encouraged to create a combat style of their own through trial and error. Now, normally this wasn't a bad idea, except that if a student made an error on the field… there was no restart button, and sparring in controlled environments can only teach someone so much after all… It was a surprise to Mr. H that the casualty rate for huntsmen was _only_ 50 percent.

Once Glynda's speech ended, one of the students raised his hands and asked, "So how strong are professional huntsmen really? It is said that student professors are on par with professionals, and Mr. H here wasn't very impressive with his little duel with Weiss."

The entire class looked towards Mr. H to listen to his response. Mr. H looked through the roster to find out the name of the student who called him out. "So, it seems that I owe Mrs. Weiss for going _too_ easy on her. I hope you forgive me for underestimating you so much. On the other hand, I am sure that many of you are curious about how strong I really am. It is really kind of Mr. Winchester to volunteer himself as a sparring partner for me. If you would kindly set up the spar Mrs. Goodwitch. I believe this would be a good learning experience for the class."

Cardin deeply scowled at the condescending tone that Mr. H spoke with. As he stormed off into the locker rooms to prepare himself, many of the students looked excited to see Mr. H's combat skills. He was already very popular among the students due to his mysterious past as well as his willingness to help out the students better understand the material, especially regarding Dr. Oobleck's class. He sent out slowed recordings of his lectures so that students would be better able to understand his material. Now, he would be exhibiting the strength that landed him a position as student professor.

When Cardin walked out in his armor and his mace, Mr. H was already ready with his armor, and he reattached mechanical arms to his back. Ruby leaned forward in anticipation because she would be able to see the weapon she was curious about in action. Mr. H's armor also seemed to shine with some sort of energy that was connected to the screen displaying the aura levels.

"First, participant to reach red levels of aura has lost. The fight shall begin when the timer reaches zero." Mrs. Goodwitch said her final piece, and she quickly left the stage.

"Oye." Mr. H pointed at the student. "I'm still going to hold back a lot, but it's still going to hurt so you may want to prepare for a world of pain."

Ominous music abruptly began resonating from Mr. H as the two combatants entered a fighting position.* No, it was only Cardin who entered a combat stance while Mr. H calmly crossed his arms and waited.

The timer hit zero, and Mr. H made the first move. His mechanical arms sprang into motion as his two bottom arms smashed into the ground strong enough to crack it and raised Mr. H's body a couple feet off the ground. The remaining two mechanical arms menacingly lifted above his head, and the hands began spinning fast enough to turn into whirring saw blades. It was at this moment that Cardin knew… he fucked up.

Mr. H sprang forward and swung the twirling mechanicals arms toward Cardin. Cardin was unable to dodge fast enough so he was forced to attempt to block the two swipes with his mace. The two saws hit the mace right next to the grip, wrenching Cardin's weapon from his hands. Without even pausing, one of the hands quickly stopped spinning, grabbed Cardin's foot, and began mercilessly smashing him onto the ground. It was only a matter of seconds before Cardin's aura reached red levels, and the spar was over in less than a minute.

The entire class sat stunned at how quickly Mr. H ended the spar. Any doubts of Mr. H's combat prowess was quickly dispelled. Pyrrha began wincing in sympathy for Cardin. She still remembers Lich's hell month of training and the number of bruises she suffered. She then realized with a sinking feeling that she may be next since he was now teaching at this school. Ruby was shocked that there was someone who could potentially rival her own semblance of speed. His speed during this spar was at a whole other level. Although Ruby still was faster, Ruby knew that if she sparred with Mr. H, she could no longer depend on her semblance to overwhelm her opponent. Blake… Blake was downright terrified. Her hair was standing on end, and it looked as if she was ready to die from a heart attack right then and there. She was looking at Mr. H as if he was Death himself.

Ruby noticed the state of her partner and asked what was wrong. Blake didn't respond as she merely tried to avoid being seen by Mr. H. For the duration of the class, Blake gave Mr. H a wide berth and refused to get any closer to him.

Other than this oddity, not much has changed as the school year progressed. A couple weeks in though, Mr. H soon was reminded that he was in a school filled with hormonal teenagers. This meant that he was introduced to the painful sight of Pyrrha being unable to confess her love for Jaune while the boy in question was acting like a stereotypical dense Japanese main character. Mr. H rubbed his helmet after witnessing Pyrrha sigh in exasperation and jealousy as she watched her team leader try to flirt with Weiss once more.

"Really? Do I have to help out Pyrrha with her love life as well? I mean what the fuck? I haven't even lost my own virginity, and… What type of sick joke is this?" Mr. H groaned in annoyance as he began drafting plans to help out his friend.


	18. Chapter 18

**This chapter is a bit shorter than usual. It just felt like a good place to stop there. If I tried to extend it, it would feel awkward. So, you guys can enjoy an early chapter. Well, I hope you enjoy.**

Pyrrha clenched the table's edge as she watched how Jaune was getting pummeled by Cardin. A week after school began, Cardin has been bullying Jaune every chance he could get simply because Jaune couldn't fight back. Even though Beacon did not implement any ranking system, it was no secret that Jaune was probably dead last regarding combat.

"Raaah!" Smack.

However, that did not mean that _someone_ could simply take advantage of someone who was weaker and did whatever they wanted with the person. Pyrrha wanted nothing more than to jump into the ring and teach Cardin a lesson in humility, but that would reflect even more poorly on Jaune. Why wasn't Jaune speaking out about his treatment? Just because Jaune was weak didn't mean the teachers wouldn't care about how he was being treated. For crying out loud, Mrs. Goodwitch asked Jaune about his relationship with Cardin due to how roughly Cardin was acting towards him.

"Enough!" Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief when Mrs. Goodwitch finally put an end to the spar. The fact that Jaune had a larger aura reserve meant that it took much longer for him to reach red levels. Even at red levels, Jaune's aura reserve was still ridiculously large. His red level was on par with someone's yellow aura level.

Mrs. Goodwitch made another small speech about the Vytal festival coming up in five months and for teams to start preparing for the event. Pyrrha wasn't really paying attention to the final lecture. She was too busy looking at the limping form of Jaune as he made his way to the locker rooms. She made her decision that she was going to confront this issue with Jaune during lunch. This could no longer continue.

When sparring class ended, Pyrrha waited for Jaune to come out. As he walked out of the classroom after a debriefing by Mrs. Goodwitch, Pyrrha stepped up and tried to cheer him up by saying that he lasted longer than last time.

"Thanks, Pyrrha. But I know that I still have a long way to go. I could barely even touch him."

"I'm pretty sure that if you put your mind to it that soon you will be among the best. Everyone has to start somewhere. I am confident that you can do it."

Jaune only gave her a brief smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by Mr. H. "Mr. Arc. If I recall, you don't have classes for about an hour. Do you mind coming to my office to discuss something?"

Pyrrha's face lit up in hope. Perhaps Lich could be able to help Jaune with his bullying problem. He was there for a couple of the episodes. If anyone could help Jaune, Pyrrha was confident that Lich would be able to do something at the very least. As Jaune nodded and limped towards Mr. H's office, Pyrrha gave Lich a hopeful smile. Lich froze and began rolling his shoulder's guiltily. Her smile dropped. Was there an issue?

Mr. H quickly walked away in order to avoid any questions that Pyrrha could ask. She has gotten scarily good at guessing his mood despite him not having any facial expressions. Mr. H invited Jaune into his office, told him to take a seat, and shut the door.

"So, Mr. H. What did you want to talk about?" Mr. H looked at Jaune, and he twisted nervously. It was hard to tell what expression Mr. H had due to his helmet resulting in an awkward situation if Mr. H stared for too long.

The armored student-professor slowly reached over, took out a piece of paper from a file and began speaking while looking it over. "Applicant Jaune Arc. I must say… your specs are quite impressive. You got an amazing score on your exams, and your practical score is applaudable. The essay was quite well-written as well. Your recommendation letters are glowing… When I first saw you spar, I must say I was _thoroughly_ disappointed. How in the world did you get these scores if you fight that horribly? So, I gave these institutions a call as well as the teachers. The institutions state that they know a student with the name of Jaune but not a student named Jaune _Arc_. The teachers don't exist. Tell me, does your team know that you cheated your way into Beacon?"

If Jaune's face got any paler, Mr. H would be wondering if he was talking to a corpse. Jaune shakily began speaking. "N-no. M-my team doesn't know, sir."

Mr. H breathed out a heavy annoyed sigh. "You know Jaune. I really despise cheaters. I really do. Why the hell do we have an application process or tests if someone could cheat the living shit out of it. If it was up to me, I would have you booted out right this minute. You being here in this school is insulting to all the people who worked their asses off and still failed to get in to this school."

Jaune was about to say something, but Mr. H interrupted Jaune. "I don't want to hear any apologies, reasons, or excuses. Truth be told, I am not _that_ mad. The application for this school is pretty bullshit. Ruby managed to get in, and all she did was simply impress Ozpin. _I_ also got in through backdoor methods. If this was when I still had fl… err… when I was younger, I would be a lot more angry. I did speak with Ozpin about your application, but he stated that he knew the entire time, and he still let you in. So, blackmail material for me. Imagine what the press will do if they got a hold of this. Hehehe. Also, someone I care about cares about you so I imagine she will be pissed if she realized that I had a hand in kicking you out."

"So… Am I getting kicked out of Beacon?"

"Sadly no. No matter how much I want to." Jaune visibly relaxed at those words.

"That being said, it still irks me that someone got in here through cheating. If this was more like Ruby's case or my case, I wouldn't be mad at all, but to pretend that you are better than you really are… It makes me pissed that I can't kick you out so let's remedy that." Jaune gulped as the stare of Mr. H grew harder and harder.

Mr. H then slid a piece of paper to Jaune. He didn't pick it up and only looked at it as if it was some sort of bomb. "Umm, sir? What is this?"

"Even though Ozpin refused to kick you out, all I really need to do is leak this situation to the media. After that, there will be an uproar, and he will have no choice but to let you go. If he still remains stubborn… well… I have my ways. If you don't want that to happen, I have three conditions. The piece of paper right there is going to be your new schedule. I will run it by Ozpin and force him to accept it. Mr. Arc, I can't really say that you are pretending to be someone better if your skills do reflect what appears on your application. As a result, I am going to beat you into shape. Until you are good enough that people won't get suspicious on what is on your application, I will _personally_ train you into a student that won't drag down your partner and team."

At these words, Jaune jumped forward and hugged Mr. H's legs. "Thank you thank you thank you!" He even tried to kiss Mr. H's metal boots, but Mr. H shook him off and quickly got off from his chair.

Jaune scratched his neck sheepishly and went back to his chair. After clearing his throat, Mr. H sat down as well. "The other condition is that you deal with Cardin's bullying. _I_ don't give a jack shit about Cardin bullying you. However, the person I care about does give a shit that you are being bullied. _Deal_ with it. I won't give you a deadline, but the sooner the better. Do I make myself clear?"

Jaune gave an impromptu salute and stood up with his back straight. His eyes were bright with hope. It felt nice having to share this burden with someone else. In addition, Mr. H of all people was offering to train Jaune so that he would no longer be an embarrassment. Who wouldn't be happy? This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and he wasn't getting kicked out of Beacon to boot! "Yes, sir!"

"The final condition is that you make sure that your secret doesn't blow out of proportion. I don't care if your team knows or some other close friend, heck, I encourage telling your team so that you maintain some sort of trust since secrets aren't good in a team, but as soon as rumors begin swirling around that you cheated… well, let's just say that my mouth can get quite loose-lipped." Jaune nodded in understanding at the final condition.

Jaune looked over the paper that Mr. H gave him, and he blanched. "Umm… sir? It says that I have training with you at 6:00 am… and after school… and weekends… When will I have time to do my homework?"

"Do I hear complaining? Perhaps you really do want to get kicked out?"

"No, sir!"

"Good. You might as well go through the all-nighters that many students had to go through in order to achieve merit that landed them a spot in this school… or failed to." Jaune could only nod his head at Mr. H's mumbling. It was not like he had much choice in this matter. However, this was going to be rough.

Pyrrha eyed Jaune's form as he dragged himself out of the bed at _five_ in the morning. He did attempt to be as quiet as possible; however, Pyrrha had a learned ability to awake at the slightest off-sound after all. This had been going on for about a week, and Pyrrha was getting worried.

He would wake up, go to his desk to do some work, then he would leave at around six. Then, he would come back around 7:30, take a shower and wait with his team for classes to start at 8:30. He would sit at his desk as if nothing was wrong as the other members slowly got up. After that, he would disappear somewhere after class and come back to the dorm at curfew. Pyrrha acted nonchalant about the situation with everyone else, but the curiosity was driving her nuts.

Was it Cardin? Was Cardin forcing Jaune to wake up at an ungodly hour to do something stupid? Jaune played off Cardin's attempt at lunch some time ago, and Pyrrha was afraid that things were only getting worse after Lich's conversation with him. Enough was enough. Pyrrha had made up her mind to follow Jaune this time. That was why she went to bed fully clothed.

When Jaune left the room, Pyrrha slowly tiptoed out and began following him. Since Jaune wasn't a morning person, his senses were practically non-existent as he dragged his feet. He eventually entered the outside field next to Beacon where students usually played some sports. Pyrrha quickly ran behind some bushes and watched as someone approached Jaune. It was Lich.

"You look like shit." Jaune didn't even bother to make a reply as he took out his armor and began wearing them in preparation for today's training. Once his armor was on, Lich attached some weights to Jaune before Jaune took off to run some laps around the field.

"You're going to have to do this lap in under 2 minutes or I am adding the punishment spar later!" Jaune visibly sped up in terror.

Mr. H nodded as he saw the adrenaline kick in. This was a good way to wake up Jaune in the dawn. In addition, aura tended to heal up muscles and fatigue quite quickly so he didn't have to worry too much about Jaune collapsing in the middle of the day from muscle fatigue. It was only a couple of days, but Lich was positive that Jaune grew at least a kilogram in muscle mass. Lich was thoroughly jealous of aura's ability. If only they had that in Earth, he wouldn't have gone through so much pain trying to get a six-pack. Not like it matters anymore.

Once Jaune made it back, he was bending over gulping down as much air as he could. Lich saw this and quickly scolded Jaune to keep his head up. He complied to the best of his ability. After that, it was time for sparring. First, however, Mr. H checked Jaune's armor and shield situation.

"So, are your designs for the changes to your shield finished yet?"

"No. I still have to finish up the gears and what compartments I want. Ruby's helping me as well so I should be able to finish really soon if I pull off a couple more all-nighters."

Lich did not know enough about proper fighting styles at all or how usual huntsmen are trained. Everything he knew about combat was completely self-learned through experience and trial and error such as how wide his stance should be, how far he should step, and how hard he should hit. Obviously, he couldn't have Jaune train like he did since he would die quite quickly. Lich did have the advantage of not being able to die after all. Jaune did not have such a curse.

In addition, even if Lich could teach Jaune, he would be behind everyone. It quickly became apparent that Jaune had absolutely zero experience regarding combat. As a result, no matter how hard Jaune truly trained, he would never catch up with everyone in a reasonable timeframe. Lich needed to get Jaune's skill up to par by at least the Vytal festival because that was when people got snoopy about all the new students. If someone got suspicious and dug deeper about Jaune during that time, it could end badly.

So, with only barely half a year on the schedule including summer vacation, Lich needed to vastly improve Jaune's fighting skill. Thankfully, Jaune had a good head on his shoulders. This meant that Lich could teach him the secrets about… fighting dirty as fuck.

"First, review time. Let's see if you remember everything I taught you so far." Mr. H hefted up a big metal club that was similar to the weapon Cardin used. Jaune winced as he stared at the weapon. Mr. H's strength was insanity, and it made Cardin's strike feel like baby punches in comparison. Full-on blocking was impossible, and Jaune quickly learned the value of deflecting…. Which he executed in a complete panic a couple seconds later. The club screeched as the metal on metal contact.

"Congrats. You learned how to deflect a lot faster than someone else I know." Mr. H praised Jaune as he shortened the distance fast enough to knee him in the stomach… or tried to. Jaune placed his sword arm in the way fast enough to block the strike.

Jaune jumped away hopping in pain as he nearly dropped his sword. Mr. H nodded in approval. It seemed that Jaune has taken one of his lessons to heart. If he was against an opponent stronger than him, he had to not be afraid to sacrifice less important limbs in order to gain an opening or block more fatal strikes. Besides, Jaune's large aura reserves allowed him to heal faster than most huntsmen as well as much higher pain tolerance. Could Jaune be a potential masochist?

This thought ran through Mr. H's mind as he Sparta-kicked Jaune in the back and sent him sprawling into the grass. Well, at least he wasn't moaning in pleasure. When Jaune got back up, he flung dirt into Mr. H's face. If this was anyone else, Jaune would have had a higher chance of succeeding. Sadly, this was Mr. H.

He sidestepped the attack and slammed an armored fist into Jaune's face. Jaune was still too slow on expecting counters. He fought expecting many of his attacks to succeed in making him very vulnerable to counterattacks. Mr. H wouldn't be able to teach this problem to Jaune so he could only hope that Jaune would learn this through experience. He was a fast learner after all.

Jaune picked up his sword and charged Mr. H the exact same way that ended in failure last time. Mr. H sidestepped the exact same lunge and just like last time drove a knee into Jaune's stomach. His armor and aura absorbed much of the blow, but the pain still registered to cause him to retch on to the grass. Or perhaps not.

Pyrrha was watching this in complete shock. Why was Lich beating up Jaune? For Monty's sake, she wanted Lich to _help_ Jaune, not join in on the bullying. What was this madness? When Lich round kicked Jaune in the face sending him sprawling onto the ground once more, Pyrrha had enough. It was already bad enough with Cardin, but Pyrrha would not stand for Lich, one of her closest friend, to join in on bullying her partner.

When Lich pulled his arm back to punch Jaune in the knee, Pyrrha took out her javelin and hurled it at his arm. It failed to penetrate the armor, but it ruined his attacks causing Lich to stumble backward from the sudden hit. Two heads turned in surprise at the sudden intruder.

"Pyrrha?" "Hey, what the fuck was that for?"

"Lich, don't you 'what the fuck' _me_! I wanted you to help him not bully him! He already has a hard enough time in class. You don't need to make things any worse for him! Because of you, he has been struggling with his school work, has a hard time staying awake in class, and _Ugggh!_ I thought you were better than this Lich!"

"I am not bullying him! I am helping him!"

"How in Monty's name is pummeling him into the ground at this time helping him?!"

Jaune raised his finger to say something. "Umm. Can I…"

However, he was promptly ignored. Pyrrha marched up to Lich and began angrily poking him in the chest plate. "You are supposed to be a student-professor. You shouldn't be doing this! I know that you are only here for me, but if you are going to act like this, get out of this school."

"Oh, fuck off with your accusations. This isn't what it looks like."

"Oh, so you weren't pummeling Jaune into the ground?"

"Of course I was, but I wasn't bullying him!"

"How is pummeling him into the ground, not bullying!"

"I pummeled you into the ground when I trained you! Are you going to say that I was bullying you at that time."

"No, but I know that you enjoyed every single moment, you sick sadistic asshole!"

"Oh, is that the thanks I get for helping you get stronger?"

"When I said help me get stronger, it does not constitute dumping me into a pit of centipede Grimm and watching as they swarm all over me _while you stood up there laughing._ "

"Okay, you have to admit that the way you actually shit your pants was…"

"Raaagh!" Pyrrha took out her shield and began bashing Lich with it. He simply stood there and took the hits as they simply bounced off his armor, not even denting it. The fact that he did not even budge an inch pissed of Pyrrha even more, as she tossed away her shield after a few swipes and began pushing at him. It was futile. Angry, Pyrrha began kicking at Lich's knee, but it ended with Pyrrha hopping around on one leg from the pain. It was like kicking a metal pole.

"Look Pyrrha. I know that your raging hormones are driving you like this, but I need you to stop thinking with your vagina, and actually hear me out." Pyrrha's veins practically popped out on her forehead as she heard these words while Jaune merely facepalmed at the use of vulgar language.

Pyrrha was about to continue her attempts at beating up Mr. H, but Jaune quickly grabbed her wrist. "Pyrrha. It's alright. I wanted him to do this for me."

"What?" Jaune and Mr. H shared a look before Mr. H nodded as he walked away from some distance in order to give some room for their conversation. While Mr. H was walking away, he made sure to look around to see if there were any eavesdroppers. They were pretty loud with the screaming a couple minutes ago, and it may have attracted some people. Thankfully, there were none as only the sounds of crickets filled up the calm morning sky. When Mr. H made sure that Pyrrha had visibly calmed down, he made his way back towards the two partners.

"I apologize for jumping to conclusions, Mr. H. Thank you for helping Jaune especially regarding his special circumstance."

"Oh yeah. Love that euphemism right there. Special circumstance."

"Jaune, could you give us a moment for us to talk things through?" Jaune gave a curious glance at Pyrrha before nodding as he moved away to the tree line out of hearing range.

"Okay, Lich. I truly understand that you are pissed off that Jaune got in here through cheating, but to go this far…"

"Pyrrha, it was really easy for me to find out about those fake transcripts. Imagine what it would be like for other people. The only reason why the teachers in Beacon haven't found out yet was that Ozpin himself is in charge of the admissions process, and all the teachers here trust him. Once the Vytal festival rolls around, there will be people who won't trust Ozpin as much, and they _will_ snoop around when he sees his abysmal skillset. Even if Ozpin wouldn't kick him right now, if word of this gets out, he won't have much of a choice."

Pyrrha then marched straight up to Lich and looked him right in the eye sockets. "Then, leave him to me. I will personally make sure to train him to acceptable levels. He is my partner so it should be my responsibility."

"You sure that it is not just because you love him?" Pyrrha spluttered at Lich's sudden accusation.

"I… Uhhh…" Her blush got as red as her hair.

"Pyrrha. Don't deny it. It is so painfully obvious. It's so obvious I feel like punching myself from all the cringe."

"But he likes Weiss…"

"So? Weiss hates his balls. It really shouldn't be hard for you to steal it and shove his penis into your…."

"Stop. Just stop. Why must you be so disgusting? And what do you know about love, you eternal virgin?"

"Woah. Okay, that was uncalled for. It looks like you are still pissed. However, I do have some experience with dating recently."

"Really?"

"Well… it was actually an assassination mission, and I ended up killing the girl afterward, but…" Pyrrha sighed as she rubbed her head. Her life has now ended up with her taking love advice from a homicidal skeleton.

"Okay, fine. I do love him. So, could you please for me just back off this time and help keep Jaune's secret a secret?"

"I don't know… You did say some pretty hurtful things…"

"Please?"

"Pyrrha You are way too old to be trying that face. It looks wrong…."

"What about that secret alcohol stash you keep under that bed of yours?" Lich froze as he stared down at Pyrrha. She looked up with a wide smile on her face.

"Oh, I know all about you selling alcohol to the students in this school."

"Okay, in my defense, it is only Vale who won't sell alcohol to people under the age of 21. Everywhere else, people can drink when they are 18. Also, I don't think Ozpin would give two shits. Heck, I think I saw him _drink_ with a couple students before."

"Oh no, I mean it would be a pity if that stash of yours was to suddenly get crushed in a freak incident regarding iron. I imagine it would be hard to restock it since the nearest alcohol store is an entire bullhead ride away and smuggling it in here wouldn't be that easy."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

Lich threw back his head and laughed. "Well-played. Well-freaking-played. Fine. I'll leave him to you, and I'll keep his cheating thing a secret."

They shook on it, and Pyrrha called Jaune over. "So have you guys resolved your… _issues?_ "

"Yes. Jaune. Pyrrha here will take over your training instead. She has also convinced me that I am to keep my mouth shut of your whole ordeal." Jaune looked over at Pyrrha in shock.

"So I guess that you don't have to wake up at this time anymore. That being said, I hope you still remember my warning. I found out about your fake transcripts quite easily. It is only a matter of time before someone else finds out. You would do well to quickly step up your game." Jaune nodded in agreement before he said something that caused Pyrrha and Mr. H to freeze up in shock.

"I'm sorry, but I have to know. Do you guys have some sort of history together? Pyrrha you called Mr. H Lich, and you mentioned something about Mr. H training you." Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but Lich beat her to the punch.

"Yes. When Pyrrha was still in Sanctum Academy, she ran into a problem in which she got lost in a cavern system. She found me there, and for some time, I trained her. After that, we parted ways, and we meet again here. Nothing special." Lich said this all smoothly without any hiccups. It seems that Lich had gotten very good at half-truths, and Jaune took the bait.

"Wow. So, you trained Pyrrha, my partner. This is quite the small world we live in, huh?"

"Yes…. A very small world that I should not be in…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing important. Just the ramblings of a mad man." Jaune looked at Mr. H in concern before he commented that he was joking.

"So, Mr. H. Is that your name or is Lich your name?" Pyrrha groaned as she realized how bad she was at keeping secrets while Mr. H cocked his head to the side.

"It doesn't matter too much, to be honest. However, call me Mr. H. Makes me feel more professional." Jaune nodded in understanding.

"Well, the sun is getting up, and why don't we start going to our… actually, it appears that I have something I need to do." Mr. H looked towards the direction of a statue of a soldier. "I'll walk you to the dorms halfway though."

Once Mr. H sent off the two students, he doubled-back using the shadows cast by the rising sun to the best of his advantage as he made his way to the statue as quietly as he could from the opposite direction that he left the field from. Near the statue was Blake who was staring intently at the location she presumed Mr. H was at.

"What are you doing?" Blake jumped a couple feet into the air, drew her weapons, and…

"Did you just hiss at me?" Blake did not even grace a response as her eyes narrowed. A tense silence soon followed until Mr. H had enough.

"I don't know why you have been stalking me recently, but it has to stop."

"Don't play dumb." Blake spat this out as she made the first move and shot Mr. H with her two pistols.

"Excuse me? What the fuck?" Mr. H did not move as he just let the dust bullets bounce off his armor. Blake quickly realized the futility and tried to entangle Mr. H's leg with her whip. With a blur of movement, Mr. H grabbed the whip and yanked on it throwing Blake off balance. While she stumbled forward, Mr. H moved with blinding speed as he used Blake's whip against her and tied her up.

"Let me go!"

"Not until you answer my questions."

"I am not telling you anything, you murderer."

"Oh, so you are privy to my reputation."

"You assassinated a bunch of my comrades! Of course, I would know!" Mr. H rubbed the bottom part of his helmet before he remembered who the girl was in front of him.

"Blake Belladonna. Wait…" Mr. H took off Blake's bow to reveal her cat ears. "You're _that_ Blake Belladonna? The White Fang member? Well, former White Fang if my sources are correct."

"It doesn't matter anymore anyway since you're going to kill me now. Just… make it quick please. Don't kill me like you usually kill your victims. Please. I beg you." Fear filled tears began to flow from Blake's eyes as she stared at Mr. H in terror. Quiet sobbing noises began to come from the Faunus. Mr. H paused for a moment before he put the bow back on Blake's head and began untying her.

"You got it all wrong. I'm not at this school for any assassinating. I've cut most of my ties with the mafia. I'm only at this school to watch out for someone precious to me. I give you my word that I have not come to this school to do any illegal missions nor will I kill you." Blake visibly calmed when Mr. H gave Blake his word. When the death knight gave his word, he meant it. In the underground world, people who kept their word were highly sought after, and Mr. H was one of those men.

"So why has the death knight come to this school?"

"I came to watch over someone precious to me."

"You have people you care about?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

"I'm sorry, but this situation… I couldn't sleep for the last couple of days because I was afraid that you came to this school to kill me. That I put all my friends in danger by being with them. I came out this morning to try and kill you before you could get me, but…"

"But you now know that I am not here to kill you."

"Yeah…"

"I have to say that your attempt at trying to kill me was pitiful."

"You're just too strong! You nearly wiped out the White Fang's strongest task force by yourself!"

"And you still thought that you would stand a chance fighting me by yourself?"

"What choice did I have? Tell the headmaster that I needed help and that I was a former terrorist?"

"Yeah… that does make it a bit difficult." Mr. H finished the last knot as he released Blake from her bonds.

"So, why were you up so early with Pyrrha and Jaune today?"

"Private training. Jaune wanted it." Blake nodded in understanding because from what she saw, Jaune really needed some help. Blake was about to request that Mr. H keep her identity a secret, but the two heard some type of fluttering noise. Once Mr. H found out what the odd noise was, he stepped aside.

A trail of rose petals burst into the air as Ruby jumped at Blake and shot a rapid stream of questions at Blake. Blake tried her best to keep up with Ruby's question, but she got quickly overwhelmed. Mr. H chuckled at the sight as he slowly stalked off. While he was walking back to his room, he took out a list with the words "Helping Pyrrha with her love life" written at the top.

The first step in falling in love was to spend more time with the person after all. It was basic psychology so it was only natural for Lich to set up a way for Pyrrha to spend more time with Jaune. After some time, it will be on to stage two of the plan. In addition, he resolved the little issue with Blake as well. Today was going to be a very productive day for Lich. He could just feel it in his bones.

"Yoohoo. What is Mr. Handsome doing this early?" Mr. H groaned as the teasing voice of Yang rang out from behind him. This was not something he wanted to deal with right now. He tried to ignore her, but she grabbed his arm before he could escape.

"Hey, I was talking to you."

"I'm handsome? Are we talking about me?"

"Oh, haha. Do you see anyone else in this hallway? So, I was wondering if you've seen…"

"Yeah. I see Blake over there."

"Really?" Yang looked behind her, but only saw an empty hall with a fake plant. She looked back at Mr. H in confusion only to see him running away as fast as he could. Yang stood there stunned that she actually fell for that before her face twisted in anger, and she took off after him.


	19. Chapter 19

**Another chapter. This is probably the longest chapter I have written so far. I could update quickly due to the extra time from the holidays. Happy Holidays. Hope you enjoy and don't be afraid to drop a review.**

"So, Mr. H, how do I do this problem?"

"Show me your work? Hmm. Ah, you forgot one of the log rules right here. You can extend that logarithm into this equation." Mr. H quickly wrote down an equation for the female student next to him. Her eyes widened in understanding as she quickly canceled out most of the variables and solved the problem.

"Thank you, Mr. H!" He merely nodded in response as the girl got up from the table and went back to where her team was sitting in the back of the library.

"Well, look who is popular!"

"Hello, Yang. Do you need help with studying for the math exam tomorrow?" Mr. H asked with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Ah, don't be like that. What have I ever done to deserve such a cold treatment?"

"It is karma for all the poor virgins you blue-balled with your teasing."

"You can't prove that."

"I don't need to." Yang merely smiled as she took a seat next to Mr. H.

"No, I did not come here to ask for help. I'm already pretty good at math, and Weiss can help out with any of the harder problems. No, I just wanted to say thanks for helping my partner." Mr. H stared at Yang and tilted his head.

"How did I do that exactly?"

"Oh, don't play dumb. Ruby saw you with Blake, and ever since that day, Blake had been a lot less on edge. She had trouble sleeping and constantly lugged around her weapon. Ever since you had some sort of talk, she stopped."

Mr. H nodded in understanding and kept his mouth shut about how he was at fault for Blake's weird behavior. "Well, you really don't need to say thanks for what I said. It was truly nothing."

"Humble as ever. You sure Mr. H doesn't stand for Mr. Humble instead?"

"I can't really brag about my strength since, in reality, I am a weak man."

"See! Humble."

"No, seriously, physically, I may be strong, but inside, I am very weak. So weak." Mr. H said this with a tinge of sorrow that Yang couldn't help but stare at him. She reached over and grabbed his gauntlet.

"I don't know what happened in your past, but I don't think you are weak."

"Then, you don't really know me."

"Then, let's change that! You should hang out with team RWBY more! You've already helped us out a ton you know? Like your talks with Blake and Weiss. Yes, I know that you were responsible for her attitude change regarding Ruby. You are also my sister's first friend at Beacon. You even laughed at my pun when we first met. I think we will get along fine. Also, shouldn't you be hanging out with other students instead of Team JNPR? You're going to make everybody jealous with the amount of attention you are giving them."

Jaune, with impeccable timing as always, chose that moment to come over to Mr. H. "Sorry for interrupting, but it will be really quick. Pyrrha was wondering if you will have time tomorrow at 7:00 pm to help out with my longsword technique."

"Sure. It's at the field again, right?"

"Yup. Same location as always."

"Have you fixed your Cardin problem yet? I saw him throw a banana peel at you in the hallway today."

"Pyrrha and I are thinking about showing him up at the sparring class on Friday. We already are practicing the strategy I'm going to be using against him. Also, I've incorporated your suggestions into my shield so he's in for a nasty surprise."

"I look forward to the spar on Friday then. If you win, I promise I'll throw you guys a massive party at one of the ballrooms." Jaune laughed at Mr. H's words not taking him seriously.

"Yeah, sure." Mr. H waved and watched Jaune exit the library with his team.

He did not turn around to look at Yang before saying, "Not one word Yang."

Yang had a massive smile on her face as she was just proven her point. "So, as I was saying, you should hang out with us some more as well. Ruby would love to spend some more time with you. I would also love to get the chance to spar with you as well."

"The battle junkie as always."

"It's fun to get the adrenaline pumping."

"Oh, is that so? Then, you're going to love my class."

"You're teaching a class?"

"In a month or so. It will be optional training over the summer for students who want extra training before the Vytal Festival."

Yang whistled. "There's going to be a lot of students signing up then since nobody is going to want to embarrass themselves with Vale hosting it this year. Why am I hearing about this now?"

"There's going to be an announcement two weeks before summer break begins. I'm still finalizing the training plans so yeah."

"Alright. Stop switching the subject. Hang out with us more." Mr. H looked around at the jealous stares of all the students who were eavesdropping on their conversation. Mr. H was well aware that he was quite popular among the student body. He was kind and smart enough to help many students with difficult courses, and his mysteriousness factor somehow made him attractive as well. Normally this would make him happy, but seeing all these hormonal girls near him only reminded him that he lost an important appendage souring his mood.

"If I accept, you do realize, I will be swamped with requests by other teams as well?" Yang looked around before nodding in understanding.

"You gay?"

"How the fuck did you reach that conclusion? And FYI, I turned down confessions from guys as well. You going to say that I am asexual now?"

Yang began counting out the reasons from her fingers. "You ignore my teasing like it's nothing. You shut down every single girl that has confessed their feelings for you. You spend most of your time with Jaune so maybe that's why you turned all those confessions down. You are also surrounded by really pretty girls, but you haven't made any advances at all. You are practically the only male student who has not made any advances so far."

"First, I am your professor…"

"Student-professor. Big difference. I checked the information, and the school's policy specifically states that you are still only a student with more privileges. In fact, there is a heavy emphasis that you are more student than a professor in the guidelines."

"When did you become a lawyer?" Yang merely shrugged at the jab. Mr. H continued with his reasons.

"Well, there is also the age difference."

"You're 20."

"Ozpin didn't know my age since there are no records of me. He just put that number there for convenience." Yang looked at Mr. H in confusion.

"There are so many things I want to ask, but I won't pry right now. Then how old are you? You can't be older than 25…"

"I have existed for over 600 years." Yang just stared at Mr. H before she began laughing.

"Bwahahaha. Good one. You sure as hell don't act like you are 600 years old. Heck, you don't even act or speak like a 60-year-old! Aren't you supposed to be wiser the older you get because I'm not getting any of that wise vibe from you."

"I said I have existed for 600 years, not lived for 600 years. For those 600 years, I've only truly lived for 23 of those years."

"What's the difference?"

"There is a difference. A big one. However, I would have to explain my life story to you to explain it, and I don't feel like laying out my history to you." Yang just rubbed her temples at how infuriating the man next to her was being.

"Yeah... No. You are 20. Unless you can prove to me that you are 600 years old, you are 20."

"Ok. No concern of mine." He really wanted to get decked in the face, didn't he? Yang hasn't met a man who was able to get under her skin like him.

"Okay, so you turned down those girl's confession because you believe that you are over 600 years old and that there is too much of an age difference?"

"That's not the main reason."

"Then, what is the main reason!"

"It's a secret." Yang could feel an aneurysm growing in her head right now. Suddenly, she grinned.

"Are you potentially impotent?"

"No. But if you believe that go ahead. It is always easier to believe in lies anyway."

"GAAAHHH! I hate you."

"I'll just be upfront with you. I'm with Jaune a lot because he needed extra help regarding his fighting skill, and he wanted me to help him. I turned down all those confessions because I just don't want a relationship because I've got _issues_. I can ignore your teasing because I've had prettier women than you try to seduce me with a lot more advanced techniques."

"So I'm not good enough?"

"Girl, I've had women throw off their shirts and ride me in an attempt to seduce me."

"You're joking."

"No. I also worked as a manager at a major brothel as well so…" The two stared at each other for the longest time after Mr. H said those words.

"The more I hear about your past and who you are, the more I think about how messed up your life is."

"You have no idea, Yang. No idea at all." An awkward silence fell between them.

"Wanna hear a pun?"

"Sure."

"Is your scroll making you fall asleep? There is a nap for that."

"Heh. Well, the library is closing soon. How about I walk you to your dorm room? You're right about me needing to socialize with more people. Might as well check up on how Blake is doing." As soon as they were out of earshot of everyone else, Mr. H whispered, "I promise I'll spend some time with you guys later, and I keep my promises."

"Ah, ever the gentleman."

"Chivalry is dead. I'm no gentleman."

"Again. Always so humble."

"Hah."

Pyrrha watched in nervous anticipation as Jaune was sparring Cardin. Before class started, Jaune finally confronted Cardin about his treatment, and this spar would decide whether Cardin stops his bullying or Jaune becomes "his bitch" for the rest of the semester. Naturally, Pyrrha was very angry at how Jaune accepted the bet. If Jaune was going to be anyone's bitch, he was going to be hers…

Pyrrha blinked in surprise at the thought before sighing. It was all Lich's fault. She was sure of it. Pyrrha glared at the skeleton in question. He noticed the glare but merely responded with a lazy salute. She glared some more before turning her attention back to the spar.

Cardin feinted an opening that Jaune fell for allowing Cardin to swing at Jaune's exposed ribs. However, Jaune quickly recovered and blocked the strike with his shield at the cost of allowing Cardin to knee him in the stomach. Pyrrha winced as Jaune was sent flying a couple of feet. As Jaune landed, he rolled before reaching into a compartment in his shield and throwing a flash grenade at Cardin's feet.

Pyrrha quickly closed her eyes as a bright light blinded everyone but those who were expecting the move. Cardin was staggering backward disoriented allowing for Jaune to quickly close the distance and rammed Cardin with his shield. Sadly, Cardin wasn't a huntsman in training for no reason. He quickly recovered, grabbed Jaune's shield, and headbutted Jaune in the face. While Jaune writhed on the ground in pain, it gave enough time for Cardin to recover.

Jaune noticed a shadow on the ground quickly rolling to avoid the downward strike from Cardin. As Cardin raised his mace to strike again, Jaune reached into his sleeve and threw a sack at Cardin's face. Panicked, Cardin swung at the sack as it exploded covering Cardin's face with a white powder.

"You sneaky little shit!"

Without even gracing a response, Jaune tackled Cardin and rammed the pommel of his sword into a pressure point on Cardin's left arm that Mr. H taught him about before getting kicked off. The two combatants rose shakily. Cardin's eyes widened as he realized that his entire arm felt numb. Jaune saw the expression and quickly entered stage two of the plan.

He shortened his shield and grabbed the blade of his longsword to use the half sword technique just like Mr. H taught him to. With a numb arm and Jaune too close to use his mace properly, Cardin could do precious little to stop Jaune's onslaught. Realizing that his weapon was now useless, Cardin dropped his mace and threw a right hook onto Jaune's face. However, he was expecting it, and Jaune prepared his trump card for the fight.

Just like he was trained, he quickly deployed his shield blocking Cardin's punch. With that, it was now time to show off a new feature of his shield. Mr. H told him about how policemen sometimes used electrified riot shields to help fend off rioters. This gave Jaune an idea about electrifying his own shield. Now was the perfect time to use it. The opponent was very close, and he was touching his shield with his bare hands.

Electricity zapped into Cardin, locking up all his muscle. Jaune continued pressing forward, making sure that his shield was in contact with Cardin's flesh. Cardin's aura rapidly depleted until…

"Enough! Winner: Jaune Arc! Congratulations young man. You made a remarkable improvement compared to a month ago. Mr. Winchester. Let this be a lesson to you about the dangers of arrogance. You missed many chances this fight."

Of all the people cheering on the underdog, Pyrrha was probably cheering on the loudest. Only for her to quickly deflate as Jaune threw a huge wink to Weiss, and the recipient to straight up ignore it. As Mrs. Goodwitch began further debriefing the two students about the spar, Mr. H walked up to Pyrrha and put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's pretty dense huh? He practically missed every single cue you threw at him during those training sessions."

"Tell me about it. I told him about how I liked someone with a description that matches him perfectly. Do you know what he said to me right after that?"

"I'm afraid to ask…"

"He asked me to listen to this poem he wrote about Weiss." Mr. H facepalmed at the stupidity of the boy.

"Do you think that wearing a shirt that says 'pin me down and fuck me' would be enough to get it through that guy's dense head?"

"I have my dignity."

"No, but in all seriousness, you should just be upfront with your feelings. That is the only way your feelings can get through."

"But.. what if he says no? He likes Weiss remember?"

"Oh for fuck's sake. Freaking teenagers! Fine. I'll do something about this." Pyrrha watched Lich warily. She then thought about all the ways that this could go wrong.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Oh, no. I'm just thinking of how someone like you could help me with a delicate situation like this. Delicate in social situations is not one of your strong suits."

"Please. You haven't seen me in those business meetings."

"Regarding love."

"Oh yeah? Give me an example."

"You threw the confession letter of a girl at her feet and said, 'get out' with the coldest voice ever."

"Okay. That was all planned out." Pyrrha lifted her eyebrows as he just proved her point.

"Pyrrha, I promise that I won't screw this up for you. I give you my _word._ Before this semester ends, you two will be fucking each other like rabbits." Pyrrha lifted her eyebrows. She had a bad feeling about this, but he gave her his word…

"Fine. But if you do screw this up, I'm telling Ozpin that you were the one throwing dead birds at the windows to his office."

"Pff. Go ahead."

"I'll tell Mrs. Goodwitch that you were the one who switched out the nail polish with superglue."

"Deal." The two friends shook on it.

Later that day, the craziest party was thrown at one of the empty ballrooms. Girls in revealing attire were running around handing out soda and fruit punch while there was even a professional DJ. The entire first-year student body with Jaune closest to the entrance of the ballroom stood in shock at the sudden change. Everybody thought that the message they received in the scroll was a joke.

"How? What? But…" Mr. H walked over and put his arm around Jaune's shoulder.

"I told you that I would throw you a party. I keep my promises Jaune. You would do well to remember that. Well, what are you kids waiting for? Get in and have some fun!" At those words, everybody surged in with a sizeable group heading straight for the snacks area. Nora noticed the massive pile of pancakes on one of the tables and began running over the other students in a haste to get to it first. Ren quickly followed. Jaune, on the other hand, was still in shock mode.

"How did you arrange this?"

"I've got money to splurge, and I blackmailed Ozpin to allow it." Jaune just stared at how Mr. H freely admitted to blackmailing the headmaster of the school. He wondered how this man wasn't fired or kicked out yet.

Mr. H stared at Pyrrha and gave a small nod. Recognizing the cue, Pyrrha grabbed Jaune and hauled him off to the dance floor. While Pyrrha was distracting Jaune, it was now time to enact stage two of his plan… until a certain red reaper barreled into him.

"Oh, my Monty! Mr. H! How did you do all this? Did Ozpin agree? Heck, did Mrs. Goodwitch agree?" Mr. H facepalmed at the question avalanche that Ruby was giving him. After Ruby was finished, he repeated the exact same sentence he told Jaune.

"What did you blackmail Mr. Ozpin about?"

"You don't need to know. Thanks for helping Jaune with his shield."

"No sweat! I'm always open to help out my friends. But if you want to repay me…"

"I'll give you more of my special cookies later."

"Yes!"

"You can eat them starting today because I put some on the snacks table. Better get them before someone else gets them." With a gasp of horror, Ruby activated her semblance and rushed over to the snacks table. Mr. H turned around to see the blonde sister.

"You sure went all out."

"You enjoying it?"

Yang looked to the side and saw a boy staring slack-jawed at one of the serving girls. "I know the boys certainly are."

"Yeah. I needed help setting this all up, and this group was the only one available out of all my contacts. Quite cheaply too."

"Mhhm?" Yang saw a couple of people making out in one of the dark corners with the serving girls. Mr. H followed her line of sight before sighing.

"I hope those guys are using protection because there is a reason why these girls are cheaper."

"Shouldn't we stop them then?"

"Nah. Let it be a lesson. This world's medical facility and aura are insanely good at curing diseases. At worst, some of the student body will just be sick for some time."

"You would make a horrible teacher."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment, but whatever. Although I have to say that you sure know how to throw a party."

"Bah. If there was alcohol, then it would be a party." Yang stared at Lich expectantly.

"I'm not a damn charity. Alcohol is ridiculously hard to smuggle in here." Yang shrugged clearly not believing him. Suddenly, she remembered something.

"By the way, Weiss wanted to talk with you."

"Oh, I wanted to talk with her as well. What a coincidence. Where is she?"

"At our room, she wanted to prepare for this party by wearing something nice." Mr. H nodded in thanks as he walked over to RWBY's dorm room and knocked on their door. Blake answered the door, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the party you're hosting?"

"I heard that Weiss wanted to talk with me about something. Also, I'm not surprised that you are in your room reading porn instead of being at the party."

Blake put her hands on Mr. H's mouthpiece and pushed him outside. "Quiet! Do you want Weiss to know as well? It's already bad enough that you told Yang!"

"I'm also the one who gave Yang a dildo vibrator and told her to give it to you." Blake's ears pulled back in anger.

"So it was you! You little piece of shit! Ruby saw it!"

"Did you guys have the bees and flowers talk?"

"Yes, and it was awkward as hell!"

"Wow. Who knew you were capable of showing this much emotion?"

"I am capable if the situation warrants it!"

"And this situation warrants it?"

"Hell yes!" Weiss took that moment to poke her head out of the door.

"What's all that yelling… Oh hey Mr. H!" Ever since Weiss fixed her attitude with Ruby and with others, Mr. H and Weiss's relationship was far less cold which Ruby was happy about. She didn't want a bad relationship between her partner and her friend after all.

"Weiss. I heard that you wanted to talk to me about something."

"Oh right! Blake, is it alright if we talk in private?" Blake nodded, and with a glare that screamed that this talk wasn't over, she went back inside her room.

"So, Weiss. I hope my recommendation was helpful?" Weiss nodded enthusiastically. She had trouble regarding one of the essays regarding Faunus and human relationships, and Mr. H helped point out a couple of books that she could use as references.

"Very helpful. So, Mr. H…, I heard from certain people that you had… umm… questionable contacts?" Mr. H stood still and watched Weiss.

"Maybe… Why are you asking me this?" Weiss awkwardly coughed and looked down the hallway to make sure that there was no one before she whispered her answer.

"Well… I wanted to get my hands on some Rank S military grade Dust."

"You are the heiress to the only dust company. Why do you need my help for that?"

"The Schnee Dust company only makes military grade up to Rank A. Rank S is a state secret that Atlas refused to share the creation process with us for political reasons. In addition, I can't go out and just buy it because it is for military use only."

"And why do you need this dust?"

"You know that tip you told me about during one of our last spar sessions?" Mr. H nodded. In Mrs. Goodwitch's class, Weiss and Mr. H got paired up once.

"Yeah. How some of your glyph's activation time takes too long?" Weiss nodded in affirmation.

"Yes. So, I did some experimenting, and I realized that the higher the grade of the Dust, the shorter the activation time. So, I want to test out the Rank S to make sure. If my calculations are correct, I should be able to reduce my activation time for some of those glyphs by up to 90% with that dust." Mr. H nodded in understanding. He knew about the dust that Weiss was talking about, but it was very pricey in the black market…

"Yeah. I can get my hands on some for you. It will be very expensive though…"

"No problem." Weiss took out her scroll and digitally sent Mr. H a huge lump of lien. "How much can you buy with this amount?"

"It'll only be enough for a kilogram."

"Only a kilogram?"

"It is supposed to be a state secret as well. The common man doesn't know about the existence of this dust yet."

"Oh… But you know about it?"

"I have those questionable contacts remember? Where did you hear about that anyway?"

"Well, you told me that you worked for my father, and I did some investigating. I couldn't find you on any of our legal contacts, but I know father has another contacts list…"

"Yeah. I got it. So, are you aware of my reputation as well then?"

"Ummm. What reputation?"

"So you don't know. Never mind. So Weiss, if I am doing this favor, could you do something for me?"

"Sure! Name it, and I swear on the Schnee family name that it will be done."

"Great. I'll tell you on the way to the party."

Glynda Goodwitch was not happy as she stared at the armored man in front of her. Not happy at all. No, she was livid.

"Would you like to explain yourself?"

"Explain what?"

"Why over a quarter of our first years are at the hospital and why I had to have the nurse do a health check up on all the rest?"

"Umm… I solved the school's virgin problem?" Glynda closed her eyes as she counted down from ten in her head. She took big breathes as she tried to calm herself.

"I was gone for one afternoon and night, and you throw a party behind my back as well as hire prostitutes from a questionable business."

"To be fair, Ozpin allowed the party."

"He did not allow you to invite prostitutes to our school."

"I saw him have some fun though. Granted he didn't bed any of them, but.." Mr. H sent Glynda a couple of pics of Ozpin surrounded by women and lipstick marks all over his face. Glynda's eyebrow twitched in anger.

"Are you trying to make me angrier?"

"Err… I was trying to divert your anger. I guess it failed?"

"What do you think?"

"At least, you'll kill Ozpin as well?" Glynda smashed her desk in two.

"Because of your irresponsible behavior, we have to delay the field trip to Forever Falls to a far more dangerous time. During the _blood moon season_."

"Can't you just wait until after it ends?"

"Can't because summer break is right after, and the results of the field trip have to be sent to the teachers for evaluation before the next semester begins." A staring contest was held between the two. It was Mr. H who broke the silence first.

"Well… I got nothing and no excuses. Just give me your punishment, and we'll move on." Glynda collapsed onto her chair and groaned. This man just didn't care at all. Detention wouldn't work because her blood pressure probably wouldn't be able to handle a longer period of time being next to him, and cleaning the lavatory is a cake walk for him. If anything, Glynda would probably get reports of students getting pranked in the bathrooms. To put it plainly, she had no idea what punishment to give this infuriating man in front of her. An idea popped up in her head.

"Normally, it will be me who will oversee the field trip. This time, it will be you. You will also bring all the students back alive and with all limbs attached or I will have you expelled through gross negligence which I thankfully have the power to do."

Mr. H shrugged. "Sure. Anything else?"

"I will be confiscating the alcohol stash that you have hidden in the cupboards of the kitchen."

"Sure. I hypothetically have more piled away in a different place so go ahead. Hypothetically." Glynda's eye twitched before she flicked him through the right wall. Repair bill be damned.

Mr. H stealthily crept out of the rubble and made a run for it. He checked his watch and sighed as he realized that he still had some time. He burst into team JNPR's room and saw that everyone was there except Jaune. Good. It seemed Weiss kept her word.

"Mr. H? Are you alright?" Ren asked the question that everyone had.

"Sure. Can I speak with Pyrrha real fast?" Pyrrha closed the book she was reading and walked out of the room.

"Yeah. Is something wrong?"

"Well, it's about Jaune." Pyrrha's eyes narrowed.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I told you that I would help you with your love problem right?" Pyrrha groaned as her worst fears were realized. She knew that she shouldn't have trusted Lich with this.

"Hey, hey. It's not bad. If anything, it's a perfect chance for you."

" _What did you do?_ "

"Well, I needed to destroy Jaune's stupid crush on Weiss so I am fake dating Weiss right now, and I asked her to go break the news to Jaune. This should force him to move on since he should know that he has no competition with someone like me. However, I'm pretty sure that he should be bawling his eyes out by now at the rooftops, and I need you to go up there to comfort him before someone else does like Ruby. You want a 15-year-old girl to steal your man's heart?"

"Why must you always take the hammer approach with these types of situations?"

"It's effective. Now go get him, girl." Pyrrha sighed as she took off running to the rooftops. Now it was Mr. H's turn to run. He had to make it in time for that date with Weiss. Mr. H felt bad for having Weiss personally break Jaune's heart that he decided to take her to some nice places as a 'date'. He ran off to the bullhead to see Weiss… with the rest of team RWBY.

"Why are all of you here…" It was Yang who spoke up.

"I heard that you were taking Snow Princess here out on a fake date to break Vomit boy's heart."

"So?"

"Weiss was also bragging about the nice places you were taking her to as additional payment for actually going along with your plan. We want in." Mr. H crossed his arms.

"You want me to fake-date all of you?"

"No. Think of it as bribes for keeping our mouths shut and not telling Jaune the truth." Mr. H then stared at Weiss.

"You really couldn't stay quiet about this?"

"Have you tried keeping a secret from Ruby when you live with her?"

"Good point." Ruby took that time to stomp over to Mr. H and began jabbing at this chest plate.

"What you did to Jaune is unacceptable, tearing apart his heart like that. I have half a mind to go over and tell Jaune the truth."

"And why haven't you already?" Ruby pulled out a pamphlet advertising how the biggest cookie in the world was being baked today in Vale.

"You're taking Weiss to this event. I want in." He sighed in exasperation.

"Thought so. And you Blake. Why are you here?"

"Sushi."

"You know what. I'll just give you guys the information and tickets and why don't you guys go by yourselves." Mr. H turned around to leave, but a hand stopped him. Yang smiled.

"You also promised to spend time with us."

"I did huh?" And this was how Mr. H found himself being dragged from place to place and store to store by a bunch of energetic young girls. This was one of the few times that Mr. H was grateful for his lack of flesh. He didn't feel tired at all as he was carrying around at least 100 kg of clothes, souvenirs, and other miscellaneous items. Yang walked over and marveled at how effortlessly he was carrying everything.

"Damn. We should go out shopping more." Mr. H was about to respond before he heard a 'watch out', and Ruby crashed into him with a jar of pink glitter.

"Oh, my Monty! Sorry about that! I was using my semblance, but I tripped over that puddle of water… But… You look hilarious." Ruby collapsed onto the floor and laughed at how shiny Mr. H was at the moment. He didn't say anything as he casually flicked his wrist and blew away the majority of the glitter… right onto Blake.

"Whoops. Sorry. I didn't see you there." Blake's eyes narrowed before she creepily smiled.

"Sure… I'll forgive you if you buy me these magazines." She then slammed an entire pile of magazines onto the check-out counter. Mr. H sighed as he took out his wallet and paid for all the items. These girls were eating into his finances like a school of piranhas.

Weiss then turned up with a couple of high-quality chocolate. She stared at Blake's pinkness before shrugging her shoulders. Once she bought the chocolate, she balanced them onto the pile on Mr. H's back.

"Alright. You girls ready for the sushi buffet now?" Blake began drooling as she was the first one to the limo that Mr. H rented for the day. Before entering the limo, Mr. H made a call to have someone deliver the goods to Beacon.

Yang collapsed onto one of the seats and stretched out her legs. "Man. I could get used to this. Instead of Weiss, want to date me?"

"There is a reason I chose Weiss, and this should have been a date between her and me."

"Ahh… don't be so stingy! Spread the love! Weiss. Are you mad that we crashed your little fake-date here?"

"It's fake. Why should I care? If anything, I'm also grateful to get Jaune off my back. Also, if any rumors spread about me dating Mr. H, it's not rumors that would hurt my reputation so it's a win-win for me." Yang smiled at Weiss's words as she leaned over and pressed her chest against Mr. H's arms.

"Before you say anything, I won't feel your boobs cause of this armor." Yang deadpanned.

"You really know how to kill the mood, don't you."

"I practice for it." Yang scoffed as she pulled away from the only male in the car. He then turned to Ruby.

"So, did you enjoy the 50-meter cookie?" Out of everyone in that event, Ruby probably ate up half of the cookie.

"Yes! It is awesome to be one of the people to eat the biggest cookie ever made! My life is now complete!" Ruby slid off her seat with pure bliss on her face.

"Good to know. Well, after this dinner, we go back to Beacon."

"Hang on! Don't try to skimp out on us. We still have the walk in the park!"

"Why are you more knowledgeable about the plan than Weiss is?"

"Because I always wanted to go to that park, but the entrance fee is ridiculously expensive." Ruby was confused as to the reason for the expensive entrance fee for a park so Blake explained that many of the flowers at the park were extremely rare and expensive to maintain.

"Sir. We've arrived." The limousine driver informed Mr. H, and the girls quickly got off with Blake the first one to enter the restaurant. When they entered, Blake squealed at the sheer amount and variety of fish that was available.

"Oh, my Monty! Is this bluefin tuna! There's even caviar!" Blake hurriedly grabbed a plate and began filling it up as much as she could. Mr. H chuckled as he remembered that Blake was secretly a cat faunus. Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Ah. Weiss. Come over here." He then seated Weiss in a table and sat next to her. He then had her lean on his shoulder before he took a picture with his scroll.

"What was that for?" Yang asked as she looked over his shoulder to see what he was typing.

"Look for yourself." Mr. H sent the picture to Jaune with the words 'Here's the picture as promised Weiss' followed by 'my bad Jaune wrong number'.

Yang looked at Mr. H in disapproval. "You are cruel."

He lifted his hands in surrender. "I have to dispel any doubts he might have."

Just then, Mr. H's scroll vibrated as he received a message from a certain pissed redhead. "LICH! YOU! JUST WAIT TILL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!"

Mr. H promptly turned off his scroll and turned to team RWBY. "Eat up. Plenty for everyone."

While everyone took a plate, Mr. H merely took a glass of wine and sat down at the table. Ruby looked at Mr. H's empty plate in concern.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"I can't eat solid food. My stomach can't handle it due to an injury I suffered."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault. Cheer up! You guys should eat as much as you can for me!" Mr. H quickly tried to lighten the atmosphere. With that, everyone started eating and generally having a good time. Mr. H mysteriously left the dinner to make a stop at an orphanage, but he quickly returned. Weiss scolded her partner for eating like a pig while Blake ate as much as she could. Yang tried and failed at teasing Mr. H. Ruby accidentally drank fruit alcohol and got wasted on the floor. Blake ended up getting sick from eating too much.

Mr. H wanted to end the day there, but the two remaining girls truly wanted to go see the park. Weiss and Yang drew straws, and it ended up with Weiss dragging the two lifeless forms of her team back to Beacon, and Yang happily skipping through the park's entrance with Mr. H. Up in the sky, a full moon was shining as brightly as it could.

"Isn't it a bit cruel to just leave Weiss to take care of your team?"

"Hey, I won fair and square." Mr. H shrugged as he continued to walk by the flowers. The flowers were in full bloom as they reflected the light of the moon giving an almost mystical atmosphere. The two appreciated the beauty of the illuminated plants until Yang suddenly stopped by an artificial pond.

"Mr. H, did you lose someone before?"

"Why the sudden question?"

"The vibe you give off at times is the vibe that my dad sometimes give off."

"Did you lose your mother?"

"No, she's alive, but she ran off somewhere. One of my goals is to find her and ask why she abandoned us like that."

"I see. Who's your mother?" Yang wordlessly took out her scroll and showed him a picture of her mother.

"Raven Branwen? She's your mother?"

"You met my mother?" Yang turned around and grasped his shoulders as desperate purple eyes stared at the slits on his helmet. Mr. H rubbed the top of his helmet as he tried to think of a proper response.

"Err… Did you dad say anything about her?"

"No. Every time I brought up the topic, he brushed it off."

"Figures. She's not the motherly type. Yang…" He quietly brushed off her hands. "I have met your mother, and… well… we hate each other."

"What? Where did you guys meet? What happened?"

"Please don't pry."

"Please tell me something. I've been trying to find her for years, and you are the closest I've gotten right now." Mr. H sighed as he sat down on one of the benches and gestured to Yang to sit down as well.

"Yang… If you want to see your mother, brace yourself and get stronger first. Only then, will I take you to your mother."

"You know where she is?!"

"Yes. I have lot's of enemies, and I _always_ keep a tab on the whereabouts of my enemies."

"Tell me where she is."

"So you can charge to where she is and get killed? Yang, she is a criminal."

"I'll judge that when I meet her."

"Really? She murdered a child in front of me."

"There has to be a reason."

"A reason for killing a child?"

"I _want_ to meet her."

"No."

"Why?"

"First, the practical reason. She is off the grid. It will take two weeks of traveling to find her. Because she is constantly moving camp, I need to guide you there myself, and I don't have time to take two weeks off. Second, I'm afraid that you won't be able to handle it."

"I can handle it!"

"Have you ever killed someone?" Yang's face twisted up in anger at the random question.

"I don't see what that has to do with what we are discussing. Stop trying to change the subject"

"It has everything to do with what we are discussing. Raven's a bitch in that she will try to mess with your emotions. Already that is a bad match up for someone like you. Don't deny it. Until you are sure of yourself regarding who you are and where you stand. I won't take you to her. Go on a couple of morally questionable missions first. The school offers a ton of those anyway to prepare its students. Only then will I take you to her. I promise you that."

Yang was silent as she pondered his words. "You promise?"

"I promise, and I am a man of my word. You know that."

"Fine. I'll hold you to it."

"Let's go back. The mood's all ruined anyway."


	20. Chapter 20

**WOOHOO. I break my 100k word limit for this story. It is even the 20th chapter as well. Thank you to everyone who has followed this story since its infancy. Truth be told, I'm still surprised it is somewhat popular. 230 followers and 153 favorites with 64 reviews. Man. I thought this story would die after like 3 chapters. Without further ado, enjoy this new chapter. Thanks again for all the support guys.**

 **P.S. I'm glad someone (Grademaster) realized the serious undertones. I thought I was too vague or I overdid the comedy in masking the seriousness that is bubbling underneath so I was wondering if I had to slowly crank up the seriousness. The 20th chapter is the starting point of the shift. For now at least. Also, don't expect frequent updates like this. I'm only updating like this because of the holiday season and time. It usually takes me about 3-4 hours to crank out a chapter if I already have the idea down. Much longer if I have no idea what I want to write.**

 _A bandaged bear Faunus slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The last thing he remembered was the Dust in the mines exploding due to a machine malfunction, and the cave walls collapsing inwards. 'Damn Schnee. Giving us faulty equipment.' This was his last thought before he died. Or should have died. He heard the scraping of a chair as he heard metal clanking as someone sat next to him. There was only one man who made that metal clanking noise when sitting._

 _"_ _So what does the head guard have to do with visiting some lowly Faunus? Hmm?" The armored man merely leaned back into his chair._

 _"_ _Is that any way to talk to your savior?"_

 _"_ _You saved me?"_

 _"_ _Yeah. So."_

 _"_ _Why did you risk your life for some Faunus?"_

 _"_ _That's where you are wrong. I didn't risk my life. I was in no danger whatsoever. Two, I might as well do a couple of good deeds… Although overseeing a work camp like this probably isn't going to do me any favors. This place is like Auschwitz."_

 _The Faunus gave up trying to understand the eccentricity of the replacement head guard that arrived about a week ago. Unlike the predecessors, he actively helped out and interacted with the Faunus and did not call them derogatory names. Many Faunus were still suspicious of him as a result. He winced in pain as he tried to sit up to a better position on the bed._

 _"_ _Hey, you should be careful. The doctors refused to give you Faunus the good painkillers so I wouldn't be moving around as much if I were you." He merely grunted in response. Nothing new._

 _"_ _Did anyone else survive? I need to know how many letters I need to write."_

 _"_ _You personally write those letters?"_

 _"_ _It's the least I can do for the families. I would hate to send them a letter written by a machine. It's just so wrong. Things as delicate as death deserve a living touch to them."_

 _"_ _You're a good person, but… Nobody died if that's what you're asking. I saved them all." The Faunus's mouth dropped as he endured the pain to look around. Sure enough, his friends and mining team were all in the hospital ward. Most still had their limbs attached._

 _"_ _T-Thank you."_

 _"_ _No problem. As for your painkiller problem, I couldn't find any drugs in this backwoods part of the country, but I got this. Undiluted Scotch Whiskey. Here. You'll probably be able to endure the pain better if you're drunk a bit." The man poured him a cup and gave it to the Faunus. His nose scrunched up at the strong alcoholic scent, but he accepted the gift nonetheless._

 _"_ _Why are you so kind to us?" There was a small pause as the armored man contemplated telling the story._

 _"_ _You should already know this from the fact that I am working here that I am not a good man. I've done lots of nasty things. Things that a dear friend of mine would never approve of. I owe this dear friend of mine a lot. She saved me and look what I am doing with the life she saved. Working at a death camp. Well, not anymore soon. I'm going to resign from this position tomorrow. I'm trying to reduce the number of sins, not increase them." A pitiful chuckle came out from the helmet. The Faunus merely watched in silence._

 _"_ _So, I guess I wanted to do some good things for once, and I saved you guys. It doesn't change much, but… I guess the little things count?"_

 _"_ _Don't be like that. Because of you, I can continue to support my family with my meager earnings. Don't belittle your efforts. You're making me feel even more insignificant." The two men looked at each other before laughing._

 _"_ _Yeah. Ahhh. When was the last time I laughed like that? Thanks for that." The head guard poured more whiskey for the Faunus as he spoke._

 _"_ _Everyone needs some laughter in their life."_

 _"_ _That I agree with. Proper laughter. Not maniac laughter though. Mind if I ask for some advice?"_

 _"_ _I'm not sure how much 'advice' I can give, but I'll hear you out. The least I can do after what you've done for us."_

 _"_ _That friend I've mentioned. I want to see her and say thanks. But I'm too embarrassed to meet her. What should I do?"_

 _"_ _What's this friend like?" The head guard then launched into a fictional story about a girl who met a skeleton in a cave filled with death and doom at every corner. "She's like that main character."_

 _The Faunus closed his eyes as he contemplated the story. "That's the first time someone described a person using a fairy tale. Hmm. From what I can figure, that girl will probably forgive you. You just need to own up to your past deeds. Whatever they are."_

 _"_ _Easier said than done."_

 _"_ _What isn't?"_

 _"_ _Touché."_

 _"_ _However, the fact that you feel regret for your actions and are trying to actively stop adding more crime to your name speaks volumes. I think she'll understand. It's up to you to decide whether you'll take the first step or not. That's my two cents on your little problem." A sigh escaped from the helmet before it turned to allow the wearer to see the setting sun._

 _"_ _Thanks. I'll keep your words in mind. I do hope you live a long happy life. From the little I've seen, you're one of the people that deserve it."_

 _"_ _Hah. Give those compliments to my child. I want him to grow up to be someone better than me. It's why I'm saving up some money to allow him to become a huntsman. With us Faunus who lives in the outskirts, it's either be a huntsman or a miner." The helmet nodded in understanding._

 _"_ _Well, best be off. I better pack up my things."_

 _"_ _I'll be sorry to see you gone." With a slow wave in response, the armored man stepped out of the hospital. Once the door closed and a quick look to make sure he was alone, he took out a dead spider, and it began moving once more on his hands._

 _"_ _Watch over him. Report his condition through standard code." The undead spider saluted before jumping off and scurrying to the hospital room._

Lich put down his pen as he finished up his paperwork and looked at the time. It was 2 am in the morning. In one more hour, his undead scouts will be bringing in reports of his enemies and people he kept an eye out for. While he waited for the reports to come, he decided to work on touching up on fighting with four arms. Lich attached two additional skeletal arms to his armpits and began throwing punches at a dummy. His current focus was throwing four punches at the same time without tangling up his arms. The fact that he did not sleep or grow tired meant that he could train for 24 hours straight.

By the time his flock of undead sparrows came with paper stuck to their legs, he had demolished the dummy. He quickly grabbed all the tiny pieces of paper from all the sparrows and began reading them. Lich cursed at how difficult Roman's schedule was. He was trying to find a pattern to his movements in order to find out what he was doing and hopefully find a time to meet up with him alone, but there was some sort of woman that was hounding his movements. Trying to find a time to talk with Roman while he was alone was proving to be difficult. In addition, in the recent months, it seemed that Roman had entered a period of inactivity. Perhaps it was time to try a different approach.

Lich turned back to his other reports. No change, no change, camp movement, and then suddenly… murder. He sat up straight and double-checked the information. Immediately, he stood up and began making some calls and got the gist of what just happened. Lich's hands tightened into fists. Of all the people, it just had to be that guy who dies, but it didn't make sense. Not at all. Lich sent more of his undead spies to the surrounding area to get a clearer idea of what just happened. Lich himself was about to go out the door, but a message popped up in his scroll….

Mr. H was not having a good day. Not at all. First was the morning intel from his spies informing him of the murder of an acquaintance he was close with. What he should be doing was assisting his undead insect spies in gathering evidence to take down the offenders. He has already identified the culprits after all from the constant stream of information his undead bugs were bringing back. However, he was stuck doing something else instead.

Cardin Winchester with his team behind him was standing with a smug expression in front of Mr. H in his office as he waited out his weekend detention. Mr. H, on the other hand, was impatiently tapping his feet as he stared at Cardin. It seemed that Glynda was handing off punishments to him as well. He guessed that she got sick of handling the school's problem child and decided to hand him over to Mr. H. Truth be told, Mr. H was sick of seeing Cardin's face. His attitude and behavior were irritating and grating on his nerves. However, he controlled himself. It wouldn't do for the other students to see the other side of Mr. H.

"Mr. Winchester. Do you know why you are here?"

"Mrs. Goodwitch sent me here."

"Do you know why she sent you here?"

"Because I was bothering some animal posing as a human." Mr. H sighed as he read the report. Jaune got into a fistfight with Mr. Winchester at lunch today as he jumped to a rabbit Faunus's rescue. It seemed that now Jaune was actually able to put up a fight, he was far less hesitant on standing up against bullies. For crying out loud, he even went against the third year which landed him in the nurse's office for an entire day. On the other hand, it did make him more popular in the faunus community as a result.

Mr. H couldn't help but grumble at how Glynda took the easier student to discipline. Of course, Glynda gets to chew out the blond knight while he was stuck with a student who didn't give a jack squat about authority. Somewhere down the hall, Glynda sneezed as a pot called the kettle black.

"Mr. Winchester. Why do you believe that faunus are below that of humans?"

"Because they are animals parading as humans." Cardin spat in disgust for emphasis. Mr. H looked at the gob of spit on his floor with growing annoyance.

"You call them animals just for their one animal characteristic? Just because they are a little different?"

"Yeah so?" Mr. H looked at Cardin's team and saw that they were indifferent to their leader's declaration.

"You do know that humans are animals as well? That our genes are not different from faunus genes? That we can interbreed?"

"Humans don't have rabbit ears growing out of our head."

"So humans that don't have blonde hair and blue eyes aren't human? Is that what you are saying?"

"No. Humans are humans, and Faunus are animals. That is what I am saying." Mr. H sighed in frustration. It seemed that racism was deeply entrenched within Cardin.

"Ok. Let's put aside the Faunus issue for now. I know that Faunus are not your only victim. You have bullied humans as well. Don't tell me you were just fooling around or you were pranking others. There is a fine line, and you crossed it when you ruined that girl's heirloom. I'm going to seriously ask you right now. Why did you apply to be a huntsman?"

"To be strong. Huntsmen are the pillars of this society, and to be one is a major accomplishment."

"So it was for the glory and reputation you joined." Cardin just rolled his eyes and didn't even respond as he collapsed into a chair. Mr. H watched Cardin with a cold gaze. If this attitude and viewpoint weren't nipped in the bud fast, there is a high chance that Cardin will be either a rogue huntsman or one of the morally corrupt ones. Once more, Mr. H was questioning Ozpin's choices regarding admissions. If he could only approve his request…

Mr. H's scroll beeped with a message. Mr. H sighed with relief that Ozpin accepted his request. Due to the severity of this request, he was afraid that Ozpin would reject it. Mr. H looked up at Cardin. "Mr. Winchester. You and your team will be coming with me to a town that is on the outskirts of Vale. Barely within the kingdom's jurisdiction. Your 'official' punishment will be to assist me with something. You have 15 minutes to get ready and meet me at the bullhead's launchpad."

"Uh? What? Mr. H?" Mr. H didn't even look back as he quickly made a few calls to some of his contacts as well as send a lump of money to a mysterious bank account.

As the bullhead zoomed through the sky, there was an awkward silence between team CRDL and Mr. H. This was a new experience for them. Usually, detention was merely sitting with a teacher helping out with some paperwork, but Mr. H was actually taking them out somewhere. Eventually, they landed at a small village in the middle of a forest. In the distance, smoke from the machinery used in a dust mine aggressively rose. A couple of villagers curiously looked at the intrusion before shrugging and going back to work.

As they landed, an important looking man was waiting at the landing zone. "Hello, Huntsmen. My name is…"

"You are the mayor of this village. I don't give a jack squat of your name. Where is the tree?"

The mayor was flabbergasted as his face suddenly twisted up at the strange request. "Umm. Sir? We are surrounded by trees?"

"No you blithering idiot. Last night, _the_ tree." At those words, the mayor showed a face of disgust.

"Ugh. You mean the tree where we hanged the rapists? I don't see…" Mr. H grabbed the mayor's collar and pulled him to his helmet as close as possible.

"Say one more word. I dare you." The mayor wisely shut up and pointed in a direction.

"Thank you. You boys. Grab those bags and follow me." Startled by their student-teacher's sudden aggressiveness, they quickly grabbed the bags and began following their teachers. Some distance into their walk, the four boys grabbed their nose and began retching.

"What?"

"Mr. H. The smell." One of the boys Russel squeezed out a response before gagging once more.

"Oh, I guess the smell of rotting dead bodies isn't that good is it?" At these words, all four boys froze and stared at Mr. H. With a small gesture, the armored man beckoned to the boys to continue following him until they came upon a tree with three mutilated bodies hanging from a tree. All hell broke loose as Team CRDL struggled to keep in their lunch.

Mr. H stopped and faced the boys. He raised his arms and said, "Welcome to the results of a lynching. Anyway, your jobs are to cut these three bodies from the trees and give them a proper burial."

Sky looked up with blurry eyes and asked why he brought them out to the middle of nowhere to bury rapists. Mr. H sighed as he beckoned them to sit. A small wind blew causing the bodies to sway in the wind like rotten fruit.

"First, these guys were framed. The actual rapists were a team of huntsmen." An expression of shock was present on all four of the boys. Mr. H took out a scroll and began reading out the records of the true culprits.

"These guys were the graduates of the school in Vacuo. They had multiple detentions due to bullying and attitude problems. Teachers reported difficulty in disciplining the students and how they paid little attention in class. They were also reported to be highly discriminatory to Faunus. Sound familiar?" Mr. H sent the four boys a glare.

One of the boys Russel gulped and spoke up. "But we would never _rape_ somebody."

"You'll be surprised at how much can change in a couple of years. And alcohol can impair judgment."

This time it was Cardin who interrupted. "Then why were those men hanged?" Cardin pointed to the hanging bodies.

"They were never given a fair trial. Why do you think that is? You guys should be very familiar with the reason. Heck, you guys practically stink of the reason." The student huntsmen looked at each other in confusion. One of the boys actually sniffed himself.

"Umm. We don't know, sir." Dove cautiously answered.

"Those men hanging up there were Faunus." Once more surprise was evident on all of their faces.

"I know right? Shocking how when you cut off the animal parts, how similar Faunus are to humans. Just shocking." Mr. H slowly spoke with sarcasm dripping out of his mouth. He then continued with his story.

"A 30-minute walk to the East is a Dust mine. Many Faunus are brutally treated at those mines. Yet, they work there because they have no other choice. If a Faunus isn't lucky enough to be born in one of the big cities, they have no choice but to work in those mines because nobody in the surrounding area will hire them. Racism is highly prevalent in the rural areas of the kingdom." Mr. H paused as he glanced at the village in the background.

"Of course, in these rural places, it makes Faunus very vulnerable to being framed, especially regarding cases of rape. Heck, these Faunus have to be careful with how they even _look_ at human women because the wrong message and…" Mr. H made a mock slit across his throat.

"So of course, these huntsmen get drunk one day, take out their sexual desires on a village girl, and then simply blame it on a couple of Faunus. Nobody would blink twice in stringing them up." Mr. H watched as the boys including Cardin grew uncomfortable as the story went on.

"Now, I don't expect you boys to fix that racist attitude from just this story. I really don't. Heck, I am the _last_ person who should be lecturing you boys about moral issues and shit like that. However, I am going to warn you right here, right now. Be very careful with how you tread should you continue treating Faunus like trash. You see those bodies up hanging up there? I was friends with one of them. We met when I was on a job, and he helped me out with a problem I had." Mr. H's voice turned sour as he recalled a couple of memories.

"I have an arrest warrant to get those huntsmen. Ozpin gave me one recently." Mr. H showed them his scroll.

"As you guys know, I don't need to turn those huntsmen in alive." Mr. H rolled out the last words and team CRDL gulped.

"A-are you going to kill them?" Mr. H stared at the students.

"What do you think? I have a lot of Faunus contacts and friends. Right now, you are under Ozpin's protection, but as soon as you graduate, and you hurt the wrong Faunus…. You may end up facing me. Or someone as strong as me. Keep that in mind the next time you mistreat a Faunus. There are huntsmen and huntresses out there who treat Faunus like brothers or sisters. Vengeance can be a very, _very_ scary thing. Now go and give those poor men a proper burial. Once you are done, take the bullhead back. I'll be a bit late. I will check to make sure that you gave them a proper burial. Just a warning." Mr. H walked away without even looking back. The boys looked at each other and quickly went to work. Although Mr. H lacked the explosive anger of Mrs. Goodwitch, he more than made up for it with the smoldering anger he expressed through his dangerously calm words and actions. The boys decided to never get on Mr. H's bad side starting from that day.

Over the weekend, some people were confused at the absence of Mr. H. They had some questions for him regarding the field trip, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course, Mrs. Goodwitch found out about his absence and took over his job temporarily. She was half-hoping that he wouldn't show up on Monday so she could fire him. However, on the day of the field trip with all the students waiting outside the bullhead, he showed up.

"Alright, students. On the bullhead. Sorry for being a bit late." One of the Faunus students raised a shaky hand.

"Uhh… Mr. H., You smell like blood." Team CRDL paled at the statement.

"Not mine. Ran into some trouble over the weekend." Mr. H hurriedly reassured Glynda as he walked over and whispered that Ozpin would explain. A brief nod later, she gave him another brief rundown of what he needed to do and walked away. Without any other difficulty, they were off.

On the bullhead ride, Team RWBY and Team JNPR were having a staring contest over who would confront Mr. H about the revelation a couple minutes ago. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were staring at Pyrrha while Yang was staring at Weiss and Blake was staring at Ruby. Pyrrha wanted to go talk with Mr. H, but not with so many students crammed into one area. Weiss didn't feel like pushing Mr. H's privacy. In the end, it was Ruby who folded and got up to sit right next to Mr. H.

"Hello, Ruby."

"So about that blood…"

"I'm alright if that is what you are asking. It isn't mine."

"Whose was it?"

"A bar fight. Got drunk, fought, and ended up in a ditch in the middle of nowhere." Pyrrha frowned at the lie. She knew that he didn't drink, and if there was a bar fight, he would be the first one out of there.

"Are you okay then? My uncle always complains of hangovers…"

"I shook it off on the walk over here. It's really nothing."

"But you really don't seem to be the type of person to get drunk and pick fights. Did something happen?"

"Someone I knew died…" Everyone's ears perked up at the revelation.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. We barely knew each other to be honest. He just gave some advice to me. That's all." Ruby was silent before she spoke again.

"I never really knew my mom before she died. I didn't know her very well, but I still visit her grave. I found out that talking about it helps a lot with dealing with people you've lost." Mr. H looked up at Yang and cocked his helmet in confusion. Yang mouthed the word 'later' to him.

"I just wanted to say that we are friends, and I always will make time for you Mr. H." Mr. H chuckled as he patted Ruby's head.

"Thank you for the pep talk, but I am truly fine. Trust me. Do I look sad to you?"

"It's hard to tell because you are always wearing that helmet of yours."

"I pinky-promise that I'll talk with you if I ever feel bad. I have never broken a promise, have I? Okay?"

"Promise." The entire time this was going on Pyrrha was staring at Team CRDL. They were acting extremely weird ever since they had detention with Mr. H. Perhaps they knew what he was up to over the weekend.

Surprisingly, despite it being the blood moon season, there were no big difficulties. A couple of Ursas and some mildly strong Grimm that were quickly taken care of by the students. This gave Mr. H a bad feeling. The blood moon season wasn't called the blood moon season because the moon turned red. No, it was because of a popular poem that described how the villages ran red with blood during a particular season in which the Grimm were far more active and stronger Grimm crawled out of their hellholes… and the students were gathering a syrup that attracted Grimm like moths to a flame.

Of course, Lich wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth so he wisely kept his mouth shut and oversaw the field trip. Of course. Of course! It was Jaune who ruined it by saying, "Huh, this was easier than I expected."

As soon as those words left his mouth, something went wrong. The school's transportation bullhead wouldn't lift off. A couple of calls later, a lightning storm had settled over the region preventing any bullheads from the school to take off… and it was getting bigger by the second threatening to swallow up the entire region. As a result, Mr. H had to hire (with his own money) a bunch of local taxi bullheads to quickly take the students back to a nearby hotel that he reserved (with his own money). Mr. H was going to have words with Ozpin about his salary… As Mr. H watched the smaller bullheads arrive at varying intervals and taking off with four students at a time, he turned to Jaune and said, "You really couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you?"

A nervous chuckle came from Jaune as another bullhead arrived and took off with a team. After an agonizing hour, it was finally JNPR's turn to take off. They volunteered to wait with Mr. H to be the last team off the ground. Of course. Of course! A nevermore took that time to attack their bullhead which resulted in the taxi barely escaping to the safety of a minor city minus three individuals…

"Ren! Ren!" As the sounds of Mr. H's engagement with the Nevermore echoed throughout the darkening sky, Nora crawled over to the where Ren was lying with blood slowly seeping out of a stab wound due to a nevermore feather through his abdomen. The sounds of an autocannon plus the death scream of a nevermore signaled the end of the fight.

"Move aside!" Mr. H had to practically peel away Nora as he began administering basic first aid onto Ren with the remains of his shirt. Mr. H left the feather inside Ren as he struggled to stabilize the wound the best he could.

"Damn it. We need to get him to a hospital fast!" As soon as those words left his helmet, a crack of thunder and rain began trickling down from the sky. Mr. H cursed. No bullhead was going to come anytime soon. Especially not in this weather. In the blood moon season, flying with limited visibility and thunder was a death sentence. He turned to Nora and paused at the sight.

"Nora. We need to get out of here to some shelter, but you can't walk right?" Nora looked down at her leg in confusion and paled. Her left leg was pointing the wrong way. A whimper erupted from her lips.

"Hey, hey. May I take a look at it?" Nora nodded as Mr. H walked over and gently laid his hands on her leg.

"Nora. Look at me." She obeyed. "Have I ever told you the story about a…"

He did not finish as he wrenched Nora's leg back in place. A wordless scream erupted from her lips as she bent over into a fetal position to cradle her reset limb. Mr. H carefully lifted up Ren and picked up Nora with one of his mechanical arms. He then sped away to the nearest cave system which was a km away. By the time Mr. H reached the caves, the rain had turned into a downpour with a couple close calls with some lightning strikes which Mr. H used Nora as a meat shield for. Due to the lightning, Nora was in far better shape than before. The same could not be said for Ren. He was beginning to enter shock from the loss of blood.

"Ren. Stay with me! Don't you dare!" Nora desperately yelled at Ren, and she turned to Mr. H with tears in her eyes.

"Help him. Please!" Mr. H wavered. He weighed the cons and pros of the action. He decided.

"I might be able to help him, but you will keep your mouth shut about this. Am I clear?" Nora merely nodded desperately. Mr. H walked over and took out a necklace with a box that grew in size. She watched breathlessly as Mr. H pulled out the nevermore feather and quickly placed the box on Ren's wounds. A sigh of relief came from Ren's lips as the box glowed its black light, and the wound began closing. He sank into unconsciousness soon after.

Nora watched in wonder as the mysterious item continued its work only to be shaken from her trance when Mr. H collapsed next to Nora. "Go ahead. I know you have questions for me."

"What was that?"

"Magic. Seriously." Nora continued looking at him with a blank face.

"I'm not lying. It really is magic."

"Fine. Don't tell me. You saved Ren. That's all that matters."

"Believe what you will. Just don't tell anyone about it." Another awkward silence fell over the surroundings before Mr. H decided to break the silence.

"So what's your relationship with Ren? Is he your boyfriend." Nora blushed at the accusation as she desperately tried to convince him otherwise.

"Really." Mr. H drawled out the word dryly. "I had to peel you away from his body Nora. _Peel_ you away. In addition, you didn't even notice that your leg was pointed the wrong way because you were far too worried about Ren. You are telling me that…"

"We're orphans." Mr. H stopped talking as Nora finally opened up. "He's all I have left for family."

"So, is he your brother?"

"No. It's complicated."

"We have time." Nora took a deep breath and began retelling her story as a child on the streets, meeting Ren, and Ren's family's death at the hands of a certain Grimm. At the end of her story, Nora herself was a complete mess with tears pouring out. Mr. H awkwardly hugged Nora, and she began crying on the cold metal plate. The sounds of pattering rain and the rolling thunder created a cacophony of sound with Nora's sobbing.

"I'm guessing that your love for pancakes has to do with Ren then?" Nora merely nodded at the question. Lich sighed as he looked over the sleeping body of Ren. He felt a slight twinge of regret that he actually considered letting the boy die in order to keep his secret. Lich had no confidence that Nora would be able to keep a secret for long. It simply wasn't in her nature.

The grumbling sound of Nora's stomach snapped Mr. H out of his thoughts. Nora quickly covered up her stomach and looked away. Outside, the rain only worsened. Mr. H sighed in exasperation since it appeared that they would be spending the night in Grimm territory during a really bad time… in a cave. A strong sense of Deja-vu ran through his bones.

"Here." Mr. H put a hand inside his breastplate and pulled out a couple of protein bars and a powerful glowstick. Nora quickly snatched up the bars and ate a third of them in rapid succession. Mr. H gestured to Nora to eat more. "You can eat more you know. I'm not going to eat."

"You need to eat though! You have to keep your strength up! I can handle it." Nora's stomach revealed her lies at the sound of another loud growl.

"Before you attract more Grimm, eat my share. I can't eat anyways. Medical reasons." Nora's resolve wavered before she broke and ate a couple more bar. While she was eating, she kept an eye on Ren's sleeping form.

"How long do you think we will be stuck here, Mr. H?"

"Judging by the rain, it looks like we will have to spend the night here. Keep your weapons close by. I am certain that we will get visitors." With a hardened face, Nora gripped her hammer. Nothing was going to hurt Ren as long as she was alive.

"Wow. I think this is the most serious I've seen you so far. Normally you are all over the place with all that energy."

"I may be hyperactive, but I'm not stupid. There are a time and a place for antics and now is not the time. Not with Ren like this, not in a cave in Grimm territory during the blood moon season with no back up in sight." Mr. H pulled back in surprise at the ferocity that poured out from Nora. He then began nodding as he connected the dots and realized that Nora's antics may be a coping mechanism after all. She did say she was an orphan, and Ren seemed to be her emotional anchor.

He walked over and flicked Nora's forehead. "Stop being so serious. Go jump around, go sing that stupid pancake song which is grating on my ears, and stop frowning. The Nora I know isn't like this at all."

"How do you expect me to smile in this situation! We could be attacked at any moment and killed! Ren could die at any moment! Am I supposed to just laugh…" Mr. H quickly put his gauntlet on top of Nora's head and rubbed it.

"Yes. Because you are in no danger at all since I am here. So go ahead and smile. You two aren't alone anymore." A weird mixture of sobbing and laughter erupted from Nora's lips.

"Stop acting like you're some big shot." She walked over and put a fist on Mr. H's chest plate and smiled. "Thanks for that."

"Now go in deeper into the cavern. Quickly."

"Why?"

"I hear them coming. An entire horde. All that negativity you were producing has attracted them." Nora's eyes widened as she quickly stood up. Mr. H walked over and handed her a key.

"This will allow me to find you later. Go deeper into the cave. I'll hold the entrance. Not one will get past me. That being said watch out for any potential Grimm that already inhabit this cavern. Now go."

"Will you be okay? You did say an entire horde was coming."

"They are nothing compared to me. I can take them all. You are talking to a student-professor after all." Nora was about to argue, but one look at the confidence spilling out from Mr. H and Ren's unconscious form… Nora picked up Ren and began traveling deeper into the cavern.

"Be careful! I won't forgive you if you die!"

"It'll be cruel to take more away from you two. Like hell, I'm going to die!"

As he watched the light of the glowstick disappear into the interior, Mr. H sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "What the fuck am I doing? I'm not some stupid hero of a game."

With no warning, an alpha Beowolf pounced into the cave and charged at Lich. Without even looking at the attacking monster, a mechanical arm grabbed the mask and crushed it. With a howl promising death, Beowolves, Ursas, Sphinx, Manticores, and King Taijitu were making their way inside. At least they tried to before a massive red laser burst through the entire front row.

"Tch. I hate how this stupid laser is only single use." Lich then brought up another arm that was a modified 20mm autocannon which fired a mine shell that wasn't made out of dust but guncotton. It tore through the next rank of Grimm with explosions lighting up the darkness of the cavern. Sadly, Lich could only fit so much ammunition into his ribcage before he quickly ran out. It was time to enter melee. He charged in and began smashing Grimm left and right with his mechanical arms. Fireballs and lightning flashed everywhere as Lich zoomed around, Grimm unable to touch him. Soon, a laugh erupted from his helmet. A crazed laughter. One of a player drunk on his power. An explosion of darkness consumed an entire cluster of Grimm. And the slaughter continued…

By the time the rain stopped and the sun shined its rays upon the lands once more, a bullhead was speeding towards a smoke signal. Three figures were waiting to be lifted back to civilization.


	21. Chapter 21

**Now, I did say that this story was going to get darker. It will kind of reflect how the RWBY series also got darker in tone. That being said, the next chapter will be a lot lighter than this one. You should just use this chapter as a glimpse into how dark this story can turn out to be. Also, if you are bad with horror and gore, do not read the interlude. I REPEAT! DO NOT READ THE INTERLUDE IF YOU ARE BAD WITH GORE AND STUFF LIKE THAT. Hope you enjoy the chapter! Don't be afraid to drop a review!**

It was one of those days where Jaune got dragged out to go shopping for improvements to his sword with the other boys. Due to his actions in standing up for bullied students, he has become quite popular among certain student bodies such as the Faunus communities. This also meant that he does get into a fair amount of fights, but he always chalks it up as practice, and Pyrrha didn't have the heart to tell him to stop since he never gets too injured… usually. Today, Jaune ended up dragging Ren with him leaving just the girls in the dorm room.

"Pyrrha?" Hearing her name, Pyrrha put down the textbook she was reading and looked up to find a conflicted expression on Nora's face.

"I know that out of all of the students you are closest to Mr. H, and I want to know… Is Mr. H alright?" Pyrrha closed her textbook and sat up straighter.

"Why do you ask?"

"Yesterday, Mr. H fought off an entire horde of advanced level Grimm… while laughing… His laugh. It was so broken. And it made me realize something. Mr. H is hurting really bad, isn't he? Like the way he suddenly has this depressive atmosphere come over him and even his crude humor. It sounds like he's trying too hard to be funny at times. Yang thinks that it is because he lost someone close to him. Pyrrha… Is Mr. H really alright? Is there anything we can do to help him? He's done so much for us, and…" Nora didn't finish her sentence as she looked down in sorrow.

Pyrrha paused for some time as she tried to think of the best way to explain to Nora of Lich's weird situation without revealing too much. However, she also didn't want to lie to her teammates. "Nora. Mr. H's story isn't mine to tell. However, I can assure you that he is…"

Pyrrha's face twisted up. Past conversations and her recent talk with team CRDL came rushing back as she connected the dots. "Nora… Just give him time. I'll be sure to have a talk with him tomorrow."

Pyrrha knocked on Lich's dormitory door and entered. She has been meaning to have this conversation with him after her 'talk' with Team CRDL, but the timing was awful. Everyone was busy studying for the finals, and Lich himself was busy helping the teachers create the final exams as well as being swamped with paperwork due to the field trip incident. However, Pyrrha managed to grab one of Mr. H's private tutoring times in order to finally meet him. After saying goodbye to her team who was acting quite suspiciously, she went over to Lich's office room.

"Hello, Pyrrha. What can I help you with today?" Pyrrha gave a brief nod and took a seat before she began talking. She knew that Lich hated small talk regarding important things so she decided to be as blunt as possible.

"Did you kill them?" Surprised by Pyrrha's words, he put down the pencil he was holding and rubbed his helmet.

"Kill who? Pyrrha I've killed a lot of people. You may want to be a bit more detailed."

"The weekend before the field trip. The group of huntsmen."

"Who told you that?"

"It wasn't hard to see how uncomfortable team CRDL was during that field trip. After a little bit of prodding, it wasn't hard to get the full story from them."

"I see. What do you think Pyrrha? Do you think I killed them?"

"I'm asking you that question. Don't ask me." Lich slowly nodded before he took off his helmet. His glass eyes stared dully at Pyrrha's eyes.

"I did. They killed someone somewhat important to me. I refuse to hold back against those who hurt people I have good relations with."

"This Faunus… was he that important to you?"

"Not THAT important, but he played a big part in working up my courage to face you again. He also didn't deserve to die like the way he did." Pyrrha closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. Her worries were only increasing. She could tell that he wasn't being completely truthful with her.

"For someone who takes lives without a second thought, you have an astonishing intolerance for someone who does something similar to you." A dry laugh escaped from Lich.

"I'm a hypocrite. I know. On the bright side, what I did was within the laws. The evidence I procured…" Pyrrha interrupted him by holding up her hand.

"I know. That's why I'm not angry with you. You didn't break any laws, and you brought criminals to justice. I'm just disappointed. I know how strong you are Lich. Instead of simply apprehending them, you jumped straight to killing them. It just… It makes me sad at how little you think of life in general, and I realized something… Lich… You mentioned something about these dark thoughts of yours… They're not completely bottled up, are they?"

Lich stayed silent. This only prompted Pyrrha to continue. "You didn't kill those huntsmen because of some vengeance… You killed them because you _wanted_ to. They gave you the perfect excuse to kill. Am I _wrong?"_

Lich opened and closed his mouth before he dropped his head in shame. "You're not wrong."

Pyrrha's next actions surprised him. She hugged him. "I'm so sorry Lich. I should have realized how much you were hurting."

Pyrrha bent down and looked him straight in his fake eyes. "I guess you weren't expecting me to hug you. I bet you were expecting me to start yelling at you and lecturing you right? I won't do that on someone who's clearly hurt and confused. I don't know what you're going through right now, but Lich… you can always talk about with me. I'm your friend who went through that cavern with you, aren't I? No matter how bad the situation is, I'll always be by your side."

Pyrrha noticed how close Lich was to giving in. He just needed a bit more of a push. "You're not a bad person. I know how hard you are trying to fight off those urges. Your kindness to everybody… It's all genuine. Everyone at Beacon cares for you, you know? They wouldn't care for you if you were a bad guy. I know that you're just misguided at times. Don't be afraid that I'll abandon you for knowing your situation. Let me help you.."

Lich let out a shuddering breath. "You're right Pyrrha. It hurts. It hurts really bad… In the caves, it didn't matter too much, but out here… There is so much life! It's so beautiful and colorful. Sure it has its dangers, but that only adds to its charms. And… and it SUCKS that I can't be a part of it. I hate it. I HATE IT! No matter how much I wish it, _I can't be a part of it!"_

Lich was now beginning to ramble as he poured out everything. "Everyone is so alive, and look at me. I'm just a walking skeleton. I just scream 'abomination of life' every time I look at my real body. Pyrrha. I don't belong here. I don't just mean belonging in this world, but also life in general. I don't belong in life! Let's be honest here. I should be dead!"

Lich took off his gloves and stared at his fake cold hands. "Not only that. As if questioning whether I even belong isn't enough… Every day. EVERY DAY. I question my humanity. Am I even a human anymore? I don't age, I don't sleep, I can't produce tears. Only MONSTERS don't produce tears. It's one of the reasons why I am clinging so hard to my promises. When I was a proper human, when I still had flesh and bones, I was known as someone who always kept my word. I was the guy who everybody could depend on. I thought that by replicating that in _this_ form, it would be proof to myself that even though my body may no longer be human that I was still human in heart and soul, but…."

He grabbed his head. "I can't do anything a human enjoys! I can't eat all those delicious foods and drinks I see. Do you know how torturous it is to see people around me eating and drinking while I'm just sitting there unable to enjoy it with them? Did you know that I loved to sleep? I fucking _love_ how I'm the only one who stays up while everyone partakes in something that I loved to do when I still had flesh. Do you think that I enjoy walking around in armor every single fucking moment? I also want to try out new clothes you know? There were some really cool shirts and pants I would love to wear, but nope! It just wouldn't work out before someone finds out that I look unnatural as fuck. To make it worse, because I don't have any flesh, I can't feel jack squat. I can't even feel the wind on my face or the warmth of the sun so it really doesn't fucking matter if I do end up walking around in a suit of armor anyways. You know… You know what's _even_ worse?"

He looked up and pointed angrily between his legs. "I'm a man, and my fucking dick is missing! And I'm surrounded by hot girls! I would love to date, experience love, maybe I'll even find someone to settle down with… Then, I realize that I have no flesh! I can't even feel the girl I'm gonna hug, kiss, and all that stuff. It just really kills my motivation."

"Sometimes… I just want to end it all. This isn't a life I want to keep living. I just want to have some peace… But…" Lich reaches into his armor and pulls out his box.

"But… at the same time… I'm a coward. I could easily find three other people to open this box for me. Just get a knife and stab my heart. Just end it that way…" Lich went silent as he stared at the box. As if he was contemplating it seriously once more. Pyrrha reached over and swiped the box from Lich's hands.

"I'm confiscating this. Lich. I'm not letting you commit suicide. Promise me." Lich only shrugged.

"I don't have the courage to do so anyway."

" _Promise me."_

"I promise."

"Just in case of a loophole, I'm holding on to it." Pyrrha stared at Lich daring him to argue back, but Lich simply did not care.

All the energy escaped Lich as he slumped down on his chair and began chuckling darkly. "I'm just so… jealous... tired... angry... and depressed. I'm too cowardly to kill myself, and… I just want to _end_ everything. Just kill everything. Stop dangling things I will never enjoy in front of me! And that's what I did… It's one of the reasons why I was so quick in dealing with assassinations and murder… It helped that this wasn't my world. I ended up thinking that this was all a dream or even a game. Yeah! I was just in a game! I can do whatever the hell I want! Nothing matters! Maybe killing everything will reset everything! That's how all fantasy games go right! The end of times is always the birth of something new! I'll be the greatest villain ever! Every story needs a villain! But then… the girl. She. I. I killed her father! I tore him in half! I remembered… I stopped since…. AAAAARGH!"

Lich abruptly stood up and grasped his skull. "I can't destroy the world of someone who's helped me so much! I'm still a human who is dependable and can repay debts right? I even made a promise with you Pyrrha. But even then… I still want to end everything. To just _let go_."

Pyrrha watched Lich's rant with sympathetic eyes and a clenched heart. She was a fool. One of her closest friends was suffering like this, and it took her this long to find out. Some friend she was. She reached over and grasped Lich's hands.

"Lich… I'm so sorry for not noticing this sooner. You should have come to me sooner with this."

Lich began laughing dryly. "And what? How could you possibly help me with this? You're already busy with school and _living._ I would just worry you for nothing. What type of friend will I be if I dump something you can an impossible burden on you? I don't want you to lose sleep over someone like me."

Pyrrha grasped his hands and stared hard at him. "And what type of friend will I be if I ignored a friend's struggles? Lich… I'm not the same helpless girl I was in the cave. You don't need to burden yourself with all the responsibilities like last time. Let me repay the favor this time."

"And how? How will you help me with this?"

"I don't know. But! I promise _this_ to you. I WILL find a way. Although unintentional, I did get you out of that cave. I need you to have faith that I will find some way to help you. Please trust me." There was no further need for words as Lich merely began sniffling. It was unnerving to hear crying sounds from a face that did not change expressions, but Pyrrha once more hugged Lich as sobbing noises came from him.

"If I could just properly cry…" Pyrrha didn't say anything as she pats Lich in the back. Even though he won't feel it, it just felt like the right thing to do.

"Alright Pyrrha. I'll trust you… However, what should we do about my urges until then? Like you found out, it's really hard to bottle it up sometimes."

Pyrrha put her hands to her chin and thought for some time. "First, is there any trigger to these urges?"

"Whenever I feel negative emotions, they tend to pop up."

"What do these urges entail? Are they just killing or…"

"Mainly killing. Sometimes torture." Pyrrha raised her eyebrows at the second part, but she decided not to comment.

"How do you usually endure these urges?"

"I just repeat the promise I made to you in my head. Over. And over. And over. But sometimes it gets too much so I try to find loopholes." Pyrrha sat down as she digested the new information.

"Hmmm…. If it's my promise to you that's keeping you back… Do you think you would be able to hold back better if you were near someone you cared about? From what I've seen, you seem to go great lengths to hide your urges from friends… Not only that negative emotions are your triggers so… maybe being next to friends will allow you to hold back better?" Lich just stared at Pyrrha like she was insane.

"What is this? Fucking Fairy Tail and Naruto? That's the best you can think of? Fucking friendship power?"

Pyrrha raised her hands. "Well, anything to prevent negative emotions. But let's be honest here Lich, you seem to be happiest when you are near friends since well… there's not much else that makes you happy right?"

Lich sighed… It was true in a way. He used to be and still is a bookworm so he wasn't very sports minded. The novelty of hobbies in general faded after his isolation in the caves. Staring at sunrise and sunsets didn't last forever. Eating good food didn't work. If anything, foods that looked appetizing now had an opposite effect on Lich. Pyrrha was right. Being starved of human contact for so long… It was no wonder that being with people that he liked made him happier the fastest.

"Besides." Pyrrha made a goofy grin. "You should never underestimate the power of friendship."

Lich snorted and was about to retort something when he suddenly froze up and stared at his door. Pyrrha was about to ask what was wrong, but he quickly put a finger to her lips. He slowly stalked his way to the door and yanked it open. An empty hallway greeted him. Unsatisfied, he dropped a couple of insect corpses to the ground and let them scurry away. Just then, a small yelp of surprise could be heard from around the corner. Faster than Pyrrha could even blink, Lich sprinted out from the doorway and tackled the person before he could escape.

"Lich? What's going… Ren?" Pyrrha stepped outside to see Lich grabbing Ren in some sort of chokehold.

"Uncle. Uncle" Ren gasped out those words as he tapped on Lich's arm. Now that Lich confirmed the identity of who he was grabbing, he let go of Ren who collapsed on the floor gulping in as much air as possible.

"Ren. Were you eavesdropping on us?" Ren looked up at Pyrrha, and after he caught his breath, he began speaking.

"I didn't mean to. I wanted to give a proper thank you to Mr. H, but with my time in the hospital and how busy everyone was… I decided to try and match up my time with your tutoring session…" Mr. H crouched down and stared at Ren.

"How much did you hear?" Ren grimaced at Mr. H's question before answering, "Something about you having no flesh, and you having murderous urges?"

Mr. H placed a firm grip on Ren's shoulders. "We… all three of us… are going to have a nice long talk."

Surprisingly, after having Pyrrha tell Ren the entire story with Lich intersecting here and there, Ren's expression was quite static throughout the entire story time. So much that Lich ended up asking if he was alright.

"Oh no. I'm alright. It's just so unbelievable. I'm shocked."

"You don't look shocked…"

"Mr. H, you should know by now that I am very good at controlling facial expression. Do you not remember our poker sessions? How you always call me the king of poker faces?" Mr. H laughed at Ren's reminder. He had a point. However, now it was time to ask the most important question of all.

"So… Ren. What now? What are you going to do with this information? Are you going to tell Ozpin that he has a walking corpse with sociopathic tendencies in his school?" Ren leaned back and closed his eyes as he thought over everything he was told in addition to what he overheard through the door. As soon as he made up his mind, Ren stood up and stretched out a hand.

"I'm going to agree with Pyrrha here. When all is said and done, even though you have a shady past, when I think about our time together at Beacon… you're a good man. You help others, you always keep your promises. When students are stressed out, you throw insane parties. You helped our team leader Jaune through a difficult period. You risked your secret to save my life. If I'm going to be honest here, I am in no position to judge you Mr. H… or Lich… Whatever you want me to call you. You are also a great friend to one of my teammates. What type of teammate would I be if I turned my back on Pyrrha's friend? You will have my support through your struggles. You're not alone." Lich sat stunned at Ren's declaration, but he quickly recovered. He gladly took Ren's hands and shook it.

Pyrrha saw the entire thing with a big smile. "You always were the rational one Ren. You couldn't have said it any better."

After saying her piece, Pyrrha leaned over and pulled in the both of them into a small group hug. However, she forgot how light Lich was so she ended up using too much force resulting in all three of them falling down. While the three of them were on the ground trying to untangle themselves, Lich began laughing soon followed by Ren and Pyrrha.

"But seriously. What do you want me to call you?"

"Mr. H is fine. It makes me feel more professional."

"Do you want me to keep this all a secret as well?"

"Can you keep this a secret from Nora?"

"I've managed to keep where I stash all my special pancake batter a secret all these years." Lich pulled back in shock.

"Damn… You can keep a secret then. Then yes, please. I'm not comfortable with revealing the truth of my condition to a lot of people just yet. At the moment, it's just you and Pyrrha who knows… Right Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha raised and eyebrow and crossed her arms as she scowled. "I am shocked that you have so little faith in me. I haven't told anyone."

"Good. Just making sure. Sorry about that."

"I'm just messing with you." She gave a playful punch on Lich's arm.

Ren suddenly remembered something as he took out two separate forms. "Before I forget, here are Team JNPR and Team RWBY's application for your summer class."

"Really? RWBY I understand, but why you guys? Pyrrha should be enough to carry you guys through the festival."

Pyrrha spoke up to answer Lich's question. "We talked this over, and Jaune didn't want to depend on me too much for the festival. He realized that it would spark all sorts of nasty rumors and jealousy so he wants to avoid all that. Also, even though he made vast improvement as an individual through both of our help, he realized that he hasn't worked out much on our teamwork as a whole so he wants to use your class to improve on that as well."

"Hmm…. Pyrrha. You did read over the brochure, right? You would save yourself a lot of pain if you simply privately trained with your team you know?" At those words, Pyrrha paled a bit.

"Jaune wouldn't listen to my warnings." Pyrrha showed a bitter smile knowing full well of the hell that she was going to go through over the summer.

"Warnings? What warnings? I've read the brochure. It's not that bad." Pyrrha and Mr. H looked at Ren with a knowing look.

"Ren. As your teammate, I can honestly say that Mr. H's training methods can be… over the top for the lack of a better term."

"Oh stop exaggerating. It can't be that bad." Pyrrha winced because those were the same things she thought when she asked Lich to train her.

"Well, it's super late, and I'm going to go to bed. C'mon Ren. We've got those extra study sessions in the morning, remember? Bye Lich. See you tomorrow." Pyrrha softly closed the door to Lich's office as she began walking to her dorm room with Ren close behind her.

"Pyrrha… How _are_ we going to help Mr. H? His… err… condition isn't something that can be solved by our technology." Pyrrha sighed as she pondered Ren's question.

"His case is definitely special. That's for sure. However, I do have a plan. In my time as the champion of those tournaments, I've gotten to meet a lot of people. One of those people was a certain crazy archeologist. She claimed that magic was real, but everyone thought she was some senile old lady. I'm going to do some research on some old ruins and some old lore. I think that's a good starting point on finding some sort of solution to Lich's problem. I also have some connections I could call for some stuff that's not common knowledge. Like the theory of aura transfer."

"I see… It's a relief to hear that you do have some sort of plan." Pyrrha only shot an evil eye at Ren in response.

"That being said. Thank you for helping us. It really means a lot."

"He saved my life. That alone should be enough reason. When I think about what Nora would go through… It's too much." Pyrrha put a comforting hand on Ren's shoulder.

"Well, that's enough depressing things for a day. Let's think about something else. Any plans over the weekends?" With those words, the two teammates entered their dorm room to see a sugar-rushed Nora and a panicking Jaune.

While Ren and Pyrrha were busy trying to bring order into their dorm, Lich was sitting down looking out the window at the shattered moon. Trying to smother the voice in his head that continuously whispered ' _kill'_.

 **Interlude**

Four meat bags were loudly talking over a campfire eating a boar they had caught some time ago. The sun was slowly disappearing over the horizon, and the shattered moon began struggling to reflect what little light it could.

"Ah man. I can't believe that those stupid townsfolks actually fell for that. I was like extremely vague. How did they reach _that_ conclusion."

"I know! You were just like, 'he was big and hairy. Very big.' And then they just automatically assume that Faunus. He wasn't even close to where we had that 'good time'."

"Yeah. That girl had a really nice body."

"Hey, hand me more of that meat."

"Sure… Hold up. Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"There was someone standing there a couple seconds ago." The four meat bags grabbed their weapons. One of the meat bags slowly made his way to the bush that his partner pointed at. There was nothing there.

"There's nothing. You jackass. You're making me jump at shadows." Suddenly, a loud crack echoed from behind them. The four meat bags looked at the direction of the sound.

"What was that?"

"Something's not right."

A sudden crash behind the four meat bags alerted them to a sight that made them jump with fear for a skeleton was hanging on a rope. Swaying with the wind, the skeleton made soft creaking noises.

"Shit. I think someone is messing with us."

"Wait. There's a note on the rib."

A meat bag angrily stomped over to the hanging body and ripped the note off. "You'll hang too. What the fuck?"

Without warning, the skeleton moved to grab the closest meat bag by the throat. With a strangled scream, the meat bag began pummeling the skeleton with the sword, but the meat bag was unable to get a proper good swing before the sword arm was grabbed as well.

"H-Help me!"

Three meat bags were about to help their teammate when the skeleton head turned with a spine-chilling creak. A laugh erupted from the skeleton, and with a giggly voice, the skeleton began speaking. "My. What eager fellows we have here! Do wait your turn like good little boys. I will make sure that..."

The skeleton stopped laughing, and the air cooled. The shadows of the trees morphed into desperate hands clawing at the three meat bags slowly stepping backward. A piece of ominous music began whispering from the skeleton's body.

"… you'll hang too."

With a shriek of pure fear, the three meat bags ran with all their might, abandoning their teammate who was still in the grasps of the skeleton. The meat bag was thrown against the tree with such force that the tree trunk splintered under the sudden collision. The rope snapped, and with long purposeful steps, the skeleton drew closer to the meat bag who was trying to regain his breath and crawl away.

A sickening crunch later, the meat bag cried in pain to see the skeleton brutally step on one of his legs. The skeleton raised his leg once more.

"No. No. Please!" The foot fell three more times. Despite the loss of four limbs, the meat bag tried to crawl away before a rope went around the meat bag's neck. With a tug, the meat bag's escape attempt failed as the meat bag was dragged closer and closer to a withered tree. On the way to the tree, the skeleton kicked the crying meat bag with tears and snot all over the meat bag's face.

"Stop crying. Stop doing something that I will never be able to do." Without another word, the skeleton arrived at the tree. With widening eyes, the meat bag pleaded with the skeleton as it threw a rope over a thick branch.

"P-please! Don't do this. L-let me go! I'll give you whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" With desperate eyes, the meat bag nodded, daring to hope that the skeleton would spare him. The skeleton knelt and looked at the meat bag's eyes.

"Die for me. I want to see the life go out of your eyes." The meat bag's eyes widened as the skeleton pulled the rope with all its strength. Starved of air, the meat bag desperately tried to use his destroyed limbs to free himself to no avail. A meat bag hung from a tree.

Three meat bags were running with all their might through the forest. All thoughts were focused on survival.

"Call someone! Get a bull head ride out of here!"

"I can't! Something is jamming our signals!"

"Fuck!"

"I _see_ you." The three meat bags ran even harder when a sudden voice called out from the depths of the forest. Suddenly, an entire swarm of dead insects began marching towards the three meat bags. With a gasp of disbelief and horror, they continued running, shooting at the swarm behind them.

They shot and shot and shot. But more and more and more insects filled up the holes. Eventually, the meat bags abandoned their weapons in an attempt to gain more speed. The dead insects continued to follow, nipping at their feet at times. The meat bag's breaths were running ragged. They have lost count of how long they had been running. Yet, the insects continued to follow them at every twist and turn. Despair began to creep up on the meat bags until they came upon a road with a small cabin to the side. The three meat bags ran with all their might to a cabin and began pounding on the door.

The door opened to reveal an armored man. The three meat bags burst into the cabin as they quickly grabbed everything to barricade the door. One of the meat bags turned towards the armored man. "Quick! Call someone! Anyone to bring a bull head over here! Call the army! The air force!"

The armored man did nothing and merely stood there. One of the meat bags marched over and grabbed the man's shoulders and shook it. "What's wrong with you? Are you deaf?"

A small glint came from the man's hands. It was the glint of a knife. "You'll hang too."

With widening eyes, the meat bag tried to step back, but it was too late. With sudden speed, the armored man grabbed the meat bag's shirt and pinned the meat bag to the wall and shoved a knife through the meat bag's throat. Blood splattered all over the armor as the meat bag, choking on the waters of his own body, weakly grasped at the knife as the life slowly began draining from the meat bag's eyes.

"One less person who enjoyed something I will never get." The armored man said this as he stared at the dying meat bag unable to fall due to the knife. One meat bag hung on the wall.

Seeing such a sight, the remaining two meat bags looked around and groaned with despair as they realized that they trapped themselves. The armored man lifted his helmet to reveal a skeletal head. With a cry of terror, both meat bags turned towards the barricaded door and tried to unblock it as fast as possible. Taunting the two meat bags even further, the skeleton slowly removed the armor piece by piece as slowly as possible.

The last piece of armor fell with a thud. The last barrier to the door collapsed. Both meat bags bolted for the door, but only one made it out. "H-help me! Don't leave me!"

Realizing that his teammate was long gone, the meat bag whimpered and stared at the incarnation of death. The smell of piss and shit filled the meat bag's nostrils. But soon, another scent filled the air. It was oil? The meat bag did not have another moment to think before the meat bag found himself hanging upside down inside the cabin. Without saying another word, the skeleton walked out and locked the door.

The meat bag breathed a sigh of relief as he hung in the cabin. The meat bag's nose twitched. Why did the meat bag smell smoke? Soon, screams echoed from the burning cabin. Screams that were harrowing enough to inspire ghost stories. One struggling meat bag hung inside a burning cabin.

The final meat bag continued running. Screams of his fellow meat bag fresh in his mind, the meat bag tripped over a root of a tree and sprained his ankle. Despite the pain, the meat bag endured and continued. He refused to die like his fellow meat bags.

An owl's hooting caused the meat bag's heart to skip a beat. The meat bag risked a look back resulting in him running into something bony. With a quick intake of fear, the meat bag looked up to see the figure of something that will forever haunt his nightmares should he survive. The skeleton slowly reached down to reach for the meat bag's neck.

"Please! Don't kill me! I'll repent! I'm sorry for whatever I did! I'll never do anything bad ever again! I swear!" The skeleton stopped and looked around.

"Okay. I won't hang you." The skeleton slowly walked away disappearing into the darkness of the forest. The Huntsman laid his head back onto the ground, shocked that he was still alive. The Huntsman continued to stare at the place in which the skeleton disappeared off to.

A sigh of relief escaped from the huntsman's mouth when the skeleton made no signs of returning. With shaky legs, the Huntsman winced at the sharp pain coming from his injured ankle. He sat down on a broken log and looked down to inspect the ankle. However, a sharp snap caused him to look up. A thousand red eyes peered back at the Huntsman from the depths of the forest. One final long scream echoed throughout the forest as the Grimm took the life of one more Huntsman.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello! Back again! Sorry for the long wait. Everything is alright, but thanks for the concern. Real life and writer's block made it difficult to crank out this chapter.**

Summer vacation. This was a time many students coveted. However, Huntsmen-in-training tended to use summer vacations as extra time for training. After all, the Grimm waited for no man, and everybody knew of the dangers that came with the occupation. As a result, it came to nobody's surprise at the sheer number of students who applied for Mr. H's summer class. As Mr. H was processing the applications, he breathed a sigh of relief that he only made this class available to the first years. What a nightmare it would have been if he opened it to everyone.

That being said, he still had an annoying amount of paperwork to deal with. However, to Mr. H's pleasant surprise, his paperwork was alleviated due to Team CRDL offering their help in their attempt to make amends. It seems that after they mulled over Mr. H's implications as well as being subject to some of Mrs. Goodwitch's 'Huntsmen's Civil Work and Volunteering' classes (with some threatening from him), they decided to turn over a new leaf. They started by apologizing to everyone and helping out with some small work. Now, he had to get approval from Glynda over his curriculum which was surprisingly harder than he thought.

"Mr. H… You do realize that they are all first years?"

"Uhhh… yeah?"

"Would you like to tell me why you would be unleashing a pack of Grimm on these students without any weapons?"

"Since these Grimm do not kill their victim automatically, it would be a perfect training tool. It is best to implant a sense of fear within these students as soon as possible. Let's be honest here Glynda. Every single one of these freshmen thinks they are some big shot, and they are missing a sense of caution around the Grimm."

"Yes. However, that is why we have those trips where they are accompanied by trained teachers…."

"Where you take them out to do easy missions. Which I totally understand. But… those trained teachers take out the low-leveled Grimm _easily_. As a result, you aren't really implanting much fear into the freshmen. Like how would you feel any fear for the Grimm when your teachers can take out a Grimm without even looking at it."

"It gives confidence to the freshmen. It wouldn't do to have whole droves of fresh recruit leave the school."

"Yeah, well. Right now, I think it would be a good idea to bring down their confidence. Just a bit. This year we have a fair bit of extremely talented individuals, and as you know from the recent food fight, I'm already seeing signs of laziness and overconfidence." Glynda sighed as she closed her eyes and thought. He made a good point. Usually the school would bring down the confidence of students when they reached the second year in which the school would deliberately give them an exceptionally hard mission. They almost always ended in failure, so they always had a high-level teacher bail them out in the last second. Usually that was enough to scare the students enough, but it wasn't a bad idea to implant that sense of fear a bit earlier. However…

Glynda's eyebrows curled up in distaste. "I still don't see the point in unleashing Grimm onto weaponless first-years."

"Look. In the wild, a Huntsman in the wild with no weapon is a very dangerous situation. I'm just going to try to teach them how to survive in such a situation. When some people lose their weapons, they tend to panic and all that. If we can teach them how to NOT panic and use their environment to their advantage even though they lost their weapon…"

"And we have a class for that for the third years."

"Again, it doesn't hurt to introduce them at an earlier age. I did say in the brochure that we will be going over advanced themes over the summer." Glynda deadpanned at his comment.

" _You_ know very well that the students are not thinking about what _you_ are thinking. The students are thinking that you will be teaching advanced fighting techniques and tactics. _Not this_."

"Not my problem. They already signed the contract and all that so the school will be protected from any legal problems that might pop up." Glynda facepalmed as she once more perused Mr. H's curriculum. She couldn't help but feel that he was going overboard with many of the things, but… he was right in more ways than one. The class of this year was far stronger than the average. They had a four-time champion, the heiress of the Schnee family, two relatives of Qrow, and many others that had scores above the usual… Perhaps it would be a good idea to teach these youngsters the importance of humility at an earlier age. Also… Glynda was positive that with this training, the first years would have a higher chance of winning the upcoming Vale tournament. This meant more funding and sponsorships… Something she sorely needed with all the extra expenses that kept coming up this year _thanks to Ozpin._

"Fine. I'll sign off on it. That being said, I want the students returned alive and avoid traumatizing them."

"I hold no promises on the traumatizing parts." Glynda glared at Mr. H until he began showing signs of breaking.

"Okay… I'll hold back a bit."

"Good." After a bit more stamping, Glynda paused at the very last piece of paper. She looked up at Mr. H who cocked his head in confusion.

"Uhh… There's one more piece of paper by the way…"

"Mr. H. Do you have some time after school today? I would like to talk with you over some tea at this place next to the Vale Orphanage."

"I'm sorry, but you are out of my strike zone. I don't wanna date you." Glynda's veins popped up in annoyance.

"Not _that_ you idiot. I was talking about your investigations regarding Roman Torchwick. I wished to trade information and see if we can't help each other regarding this issue." At this, Mr. H froze.

With a steely voice, Mr. H slowly asked, "How did you know?"

"I do have connections to the black market Mr. H." The two stared at each other with the only sound being the ticking of the clock. Once the implication sank in, Mr. H flicked a pencil at the clock causing it to fall down onto the ground shattering on impact.

"I'm guessing you know _who_ I am?"

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Ever since you came here."

"And you _still_ let Ozpin hire me? Although Ozpin is an insane yet clever fool, I know you to be far more rationale."

"Yes. I must admit. I was NOT happy when Ozpin announced his decision to hire you. No, it is safe to say I was livid. I kept a close eye on you and well… even now I still don't completely accept his decision. I truly do not understand why we must accept a murderer into this school. However… It seems that you have some sort of history with Pyrrha, yes?" Glynda took note of how Mr. H looked up, wariness oozing from his sitting posture.

"You leave Pyrrha out of this." Glynda shook her head as she reassured him that she won't harm Pyrrha. It was precisely because of his relationship with her that Glynda was able to trust him a bit more. Near the beginning of the semester when she was watching Mr. H for any suspicious signs, she quickly took note of how Mr. H always had some sort of soft spot for Pyrrha that soon extended to her friends as well.

Mr. H sighed as he writhed his hands. "We met some years ago and traveled together for some time. I owe her a lot since she helped me through a tough time. That's all I will say."

Glynda nodded in satisfaction because it aligned with what she discovered herself. Realizing Pyrrha and Mr. H's close relationship, Glynda did some research on Pyrrha, finding out about her suspicious disappearance a couple years ago. When questioned regarding the disappearance, she merely stated that she was trapped in an unknown area and managed to escape due to the sacrifice of a certain someone. Glynda confirmed that Mr. H was most likely 'the savior' when she discovered that Pyrrha called Mr. H 'Lich' when they were seemingly alone which was coincidently the name that was inscribed into a small grave that Pyrrha always annually visited. It did not take a genius to put two and two together. Although Glynda was positive that she was still missing a major chunk of the story, she got the gist of it: Mr. H cares for Pyrrha for some reason. After all, Mr. H's true reasons for accepting Ozpin's offer was so he could protect Pyrrha.

Since Glynda found out Mr. H's reason for coming to this school, she was able to calm down a bit more regarding his employment since he did not join due to any nefarious plans. She was also very aware at how Mr. H used his connections to the underground to tell every major crime organization that Beacon was off-limits during his stay there lest they incur his wrath. As a result, she no longer viewed Mr. H with extreme wariness. She now considered him a… tentative ally. After all, their goals were currently aligned. If Beacon was safe, so was Pyrrha.

"Then, it seems that we can work together. We both wish to keep this school safe, and Mr. Torchwick's robberies have both of us quite concerned." Mr. H snorted.

"No shit, Sherlock. Nobody needs that much Dust unless they are planning something very destructive."

Glynda nodded in agreement. "Which is why I believe that we would be able to quickly put a stop to Mr. Torchwick's plans if we were to work together."

There was a small pause as Mr. H thought about Glynda's offer. "I'm not sure about how much I can help, but sure. I can make time."

Glynda nodded in affirmation, and she quickly stamped the last piece of paper. Once Mr. H handed his stamped documents to the Resource Management Center, he quickly found Glynda once more, and the two of them took the quickest ride to the city. Glynda raised an eyebrow at the large backpack slung around his shoulder, but after some thought, she realized its contents and said nothing.

At the café, they sat in a secluded section. Once Mr. H set up his anti-spyware material, they began discussing their findings. Glynda started off first since she was positive that Mr. H knew more than her. It would be better to establish what she already knew so that Mr. H could fill in the blanks.

He leaned back with a sigh after Glynda finished up her explanation with how she believed that he had a base in Mt. Glenn. "Well, you got the very basics down."

"Yes. It seems that Mr. Torchwick is quite skilled in covering up his tracks. It was the most I could gain from the spy networks. Now, is there anything you can add to what I know so far?"

Mr. H leaned back and thought a bit. "First, I want to clarify something. I _worked_ with Torchwick, and this isn't normal for him. Someone else is pulling the strings."

Noticing Glynda's confused face, he took out his scroll, pulled up a couple of pictures, and slid the scroll to Glynda. "It seems that there is a woman who is threatening him."

As Glynda looked over the pictures of a brunette in a red dress, Mr. H continued his explanation. "I tried to look up who she was, but I've got nothing. It's like she doesn't even exist. Not even the Vale or Atlas Mafia have anything on her. It also seems that she also has some underlings of her own, but my scouts have been unable to get a good description of them. My guess is that one of them specializes in illusions. Seems that she wants to keep them hidden as potential trump cards."

"Have you tried Mistral and Vacuo?"

"I don't have any high connections to those two places. I would love to pay them a visit, but that would mean taking an extended leave of school, and I refuse to do so if it means leaving Pyrrha by herself in a city with a criminal that has stolen a shit ton of explosives."

"I see…"

"So yes. Right now, I'm trying to set up a meeting with Torchwick so we can work together to stop this woman from whatever she is planning. Only problem is that this woman isn't easy to separate from Torchwick. It seems she doesn't quite trust him. To make things worse, she found out about my scouts so she is making it _really_ hard for me to spy on them right now. I've been getting fewer and fewer reports."

"Are you sure Torchwick will cooperate?"

"Oh yes. I worked with him for quite some time so I am _fairly_ certain that he will cooperate. However, if you help me, I can make it certain."

"What do you need?"

"I need Ozpin to promise in writing that he can grant Roman full pardon if he cooperates. Roman hates being in the public view. He would much rather wipe his recent public crimes clean off his record. In fact, if Roman was actually serious about stealing, you would never know it was him to begin with. You could say that him being in complete public view is his way of screaming that something isn't right here."

Glynda was sure that Ozpin would be able to pull a couple of strings in order to fulfill Mr. H's request. "I'll see what I can do. Do you know why he's stopped his operations recently though? He hasn't been as active. I have my suspicions, but I want a second opinion."

"A couple of reasons. One would be the increase in security." Glynda nodded in agreement. "However, as we both know, increased security matters little to a thief like Roman. No, he ran into a little problem thanks to me."

"What problem is that?"

"You do remember me telling all the biggest criminal organizations NOT to mess with Vale, yes?" Glynda's eyes widened in understanding.

"He doesn't have enough people."

"Pretty much. Nobody is keen on making an enemy out of me. Anyone stupid enough on getting hired by Torchwick has probably already been arrested or killed so far. The mafia has done a good job telling their underlings that Vale is off-limits to any big operations."

"I see…"

"However, there is one group that isn't afraid of me. If anything, they would love to settle a score with me." Glynda raised an eyebrow at those words.

"Who?"

"The White Fang. That brunette has been making some deals with the White Fang recently. It's still in the negotiation phase, but Adam Taurus is close to accepting from what my scouts are reporting. That and he is clamoring for my head."

"That is quite worrying. Do you know what they are negotiating about?"

"Sigh… The comic book usual. It seems that the brunette is talking about how her master Salem can help with the White Fang's goal of bringing down humanity. Don't know who this Salem person is though." It was the word Salem that caught Glynda by surprise. She managed to hide it, but this was worrying. Very worrying.

"Are you sure the name Salem came up?" This was something that Ozpin himself needed to know for sure.

"Yes. As I said, I don't know who she is, but… expect the robberies to start back up soon."

"Can you be a bit more descriptive about the negotiations that are taking place?" Mr. H stared at Glynda for a bit before shrugging. He sent Glynda a couple of files which she then forwarded to Ozpin immediately after a quick read through.

"Can't you do anything to disrupt the negotiations? Where it is taking place?"

"First, it is taking place in Mistral. They change locations every damn time so I can't tell you the directions. I also won't tell you how I got the information since I still don't trust Ozpin mind you. As for disrupting it…. I need to find that Dust first. I don't want it to go off without me knowing where it is. Heck, I'm afraid to do anything big _until_ I find where that Dust is. I'm trying to limit the number of casualties since I'm already walking on eggshells with Pyrrha regarding this issue, and I really don't want to ruin our friendship. She really won't forgive me _this time_ if she realized I just sacrificed a bunch of citizens if I could do something about it." Mr. H laid his head down onto the table and began drumming his hands in frustration. Glynda took a long sip from her coffee as she pondered this information.

"If you can tell me the rough coordinates, Ozpin might be able to send one of his best Huntsman to the area."

"You do understand that if you screw this up, things can get nasty real quick? Roman already has a ton of explosives hidden away somewhere, and I'm willing to bet that if we move rashly…"

"I did say we will send our best."

"You're sending Qrow, aren't you." Mr. H facepalmed and groaned. Glynda smiled as she recalled how the two fought over a misunderstanding and walked back with one covered in literal shit and another with multiple broken teeth and a very colorful face.

"I still don't know why you fought with him…"

"You really don't want to know. I'll just say that Qrow can have trouble keeping his pants on when he is flat out drunk and that he can have _interesting_ sexual preferences." Glynda decided to switch topics. This was already turning out to be something she really didn't want to know.

"Despite his… shortcomings, he is our best on the field."

"That really says a lot about your human resources."

"Sometimes trust is more important that talent."

"Touché. Alright, I'll send you the coordinates of all past meetings, and my estimates at where the next meeting will take place."

"Thank you. We will try to share some information as well."

"No need. I highly doubt Qrow is going to be very successful. This woman is _good. Real good._ "

"You are very pessimistic."

"I am very realistic." Glynda nodded at his words. Dark times were coming. Ever since the attack on Amber, Glynda has been unable to get rid of a sinking feeling in her stomach every time she thought of the current situation. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Mr. H got up from his seat

"I think this is all I can share with you at the moment. If I say anything more, I may end up telling you something I shouldn't have. I also have an appointment."

"Do you mind if I accompany you?" Mr. H gave her a look before shrugging. They walked out of the café and a short walk later, arrived at a decently sized orphanage with numerous children playing in the front yard. When they saw who was at the gate, all the children started running toward the gate yelling 'the metal man is here!'. This screaming soon attracted the caregiver of the orphanage who walked to the front gate and allowed the two in.

The caregiver was a tall slender woman with short curly brown hair. She was also carrying around an umbrella even though there was no rain. "Hello, Poppins. Is everything well?"

"Quite well. I'm guessing you're going to be spoiling everyone with more gifts." At the word gifts, all the children started cheering and jumping up and down with anticipation. All eyes were drawn to Mr. H's backpack.

"Alright. Line up. No pushing." As the children started lining up to get small dolls and toys handed to them, Mr. H struck up a conversation with Poppins.

"So… Is Lily well?" Poppins winced at the name.

"She found out." Mr. H shot his heads up in surprise and almost dropped the little truck he was about to give a small boy. However, he quickly recovered and continued to hand out his gifts.

"She's a smart girl. It wasn't long before she found out. I'm guessing she doesn't want me to visit anymore does she?" As soon as those words left his mouth, the doors burst open to reveal a 14-year-old girl. Her eyes were poufy from crying, and her blonde hair was disheveled from lack of care. She stared at the armored man, her mouth opening and closing uncertain of what to say or accuse.

Poppins gave a small nod so he handed the backpack to Poppins in order to enter the orphanage with Lily away from prying ears. Glynda continued to watch the entire scene from the background uncertain of what was going on.

It wasn't long before shouting could be heard, and Mr. H soon walked out with a defeated posture. A small wave of good bye later, Mr. H was out of the gates and on his way back to Beacon, Glynda close behind.

"What happened?"

"I murdered her father." That one line already told everything Glynda needed to know. The entire trip back was silent for there were no other words that needed to be exchanged between them. By the time, the two arrived at Beacon, Glynda opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

"It's alright. I already came to terms with it a long time ago."

"People can change Mr. H. Although time can only tell, I believe it may be possible to redeem yourself. Qrow himself used to be a criminal."

Mr. H sent out a self-deprecating laugh. "You can never redeem yourself. You can only forgive yourself. But thank you."

They separated, and Mr. H walked up to the highest building in the school and began climbing. At the rooftop, he sat down and began to watch the sunset. He stayed up there even after the sun disappeared. Soon he heard sounds of grunting, and low and behold, Pyrrha soon popped up from the side.

"Hello, Pyrrha."

"So… mind telling me why you are sitting in the roof in the dark?"

"Just being an edgy asshole." Pyrrha rolled her eyes.

"Add snarky as well. But seriously, are you okay?"

"Just feeling hollow." Pyrrha sat down next to Lich and leaned against him.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I made a lot of children into orphans Pyrrha. That fact got shoved into my face today. It's really ironic. Before I came to this world, I was a law-abiding citizen. I never made too much trouble, and I always made some time in the weekends to volunteer in some soup kitchens or the museum. I had a loving family and a great group of friends that I fooled around with. Almost got out of the friend zone with a girl I liked. Look at me now. I'm an insane bastard who is sane enough to realize how low he has fallen. I thought I completely came to terms with this, but… it still hurts." He was about to go on, but he was cut off by Pyrrha smacking his helmet.

"Enough with that. You're now sane enough to make things right after all."

"Sure. Let's go with that… You should go to sleep."

"What about… ah right. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Just go. Be sure to get ready for the summer class. I'm pretty sure I handed out a bunch of stuff to buy and read. You might want to start preparing for the trip." Pyrrha visibly shuddered.

"I dread whatever hell you will dredge up. Like seriously. The assigned reading from the textbook of poisonous and toxic Grimm is already really nerve-grating for me."

"You'll be… um… better than most."

"How reassuring. Well, good night." Pyrrha began climbing down in order to get to her dorms before curfew.

Lich stayed up in the rooftops until he slapped his legs, stoop up, and said, "Shit. I think I have more work than I thought."

And thus… A week passed in the blink of an eye with many of the first years prepping up for Mr. H's summer class. On the bullhead ride to an obscure part of Forever Falls, everyone was brimming with excitement at what type of training methods he had planned. Except for Pyrrha. She knew that Mr. H didn't pull any punches when he got serious regarding training.

"Hey, hey! What's with the serious face?" Yang suddenly popped out behind Pyrrha and wrapped them with a giant bear hug.

"I'm trying to plan out how I'm going to survive whatever plan he has for us."

"Huh? What are you so worried about? This is Mr. H, not Mrs. Goodwitch."

"That's the point. Mr. H is a completely different guy when it comes to training."

"How much can one man change?"

"He does a complete 180."

"Then… how do you know? Did he train you before?"

"Yes. We have a small history together." Yang arched her eyebrows up when she hears that someone knew about him in the past. This was surprising… and juicy gossip.

"C'mon. You have to tell me what he was like in the past."

"Depressing. That's all I'm going to say."

"That bad?"

"That bad." Yang decided to wisely back out after hearing that. She soon heard her team calling for her at the other side of the bullhead so she said goodbye before walking back.

Ren took that time to approach Pyrrha. "So, what's the game plan?"

"I don't know. There's just so many ways this can go. You did the reading about the Komodo Ants, right?" Ren nodded in affirmation. The Komodo Ants were a peculiar Grimm. They did not automatically kill their prey. Instead, they injected their victims with a toxin that causes paralysis and extreme pain for 24 hours. Without any treatment, the victim will die without fail. In the wilderness, getting treatment would be near impossible so many Huntsman have died by these Grimm.

"Well, I've gotten a bunch of painkiller stuffed in a pocket I sewed into my armor last night. It's not an antidote to the poison, but it should stop the paralysis and some of the pain."

"You're talking as if Mr. H is going to release those Grimm on us. Pyrrha those Grimm are second-year threats due to them being a fast type of swarm Grimm." Pyrrha grimaced, and Ren was once more reminded of the conversation the two had.

"Is he seriously going to do that?" Ren whispered with a hint of panic.

"Get ready to climb a tree at any moment. We aren't going to outrun those Grimm." Ren gulped in fear and nodded. He was now regretting not listening to Pyrrha's warnings when they were discussing if they should apply for his class.

"What are you guys whispering about?" Nora suddenly popped out of nowhere and wrapped an arm around both of their necks.

"Is something wrong?" Jaune took that time to approach them as well.

"Yes. As soon as the bullhead lands, be prepared to run and climb a tree." Jaune gave Pyrrha a dead look.

"This again? You really think that he's going to go overboard like his training with me?"

"Yes." Jaune stared deep into Pyrrha's eyes before sighing.

"Okay. Okay. Just give the signal." Pyrrha nodded in relief, and Jaune merely shook his head. To be honest, even he knew that Pyrrha was probably right to be wary. However, it still wouldn't change his decision to attend Mr. H's class. Because of him being the weak link, his team would struggle in the upcoming festival without Pyrrha to practically carry everyone to victory. Jaune couldn't have that. As a result, even if Mr. H's class might end up going overboard, it was still the quickest way to get stronger.

The rest of the bullhead ride was spent discussing how to survive the first day of Mr. H's class. Soon, the bullhead gave an announcement that they were going to soon reach their destination. As everyone began leaving the Bullhead into a small clearing surrounded by trees, a mist machine began spraying something at the students.

"Hello, students! Welcome to my class, Bootcamp Survival!" Mr. H dressed as always in a suit of armor was standing atop a rock with a massive structure behind him. Said structure was covered with a massive tarp so nobody knew what it was though. As soon as he said those words, the bullhead took off leaving the students with Mr. H.

"Don't worry. The bullhead will take your stuff and weapons to the camp. See that tower over there? That's where we will stay for the duration of this two-week long class." Mr. H then pointed to a massive cement tower far to the east. Pyrrha immediately started calculating the distance. She roughly calculated that it was about 10 km away. Ruby raised her hand to ask a question.

"How are we going to get there though?"

"Why we'll walk!"

"Without our weapons?"

"This is going to be an entrance exam of sorts. If you can't handle the first day of my class, it is best that you leave right now because it is only going to get harder. However, I can guarantee that after my class you will be a lot stronger than before." Everybody's reaction was different. Many gulped in fear while some had a 'challenge-accepted' look on their faces. After confirming that his words were properly understood, Mr. H continued.

"Now, the first assignment is this. You will have to make your way through the forest to the tower by sunset. Don't worry about not having weapons since many of the Grimm have been wiped out except for a select few. Also, only one member of your team has to arrive for your entire team to pass. I will also be close by to make sure that none of you die… as well as be a hindrance." Pyrrha's frowned, and she immediately began scanning her surroundings formulating an escape plan. The others were still oblivious.

"Now. How many of you did the reading? Show of hands." Everybody raised their hands.

"Good. I don't know how many of you are lying, but we'll see. Now, I am a strong believer in learning through experience." Before he could continue there was a commotion in the crowd. Pyrrha was practically screaming to her teammates to get up the tree as she dragged her partner with her. Ren did the same with Nora, following the two.

"Haha. Those four get it!" All eyes were on Mr. H once more.

"Now as I said. I am a strong believer in learning through experience." With those words, Mr. H yanked on the cloth to reveal a massive cage filled with Komodo Ants. All of them were cackling the mandibles as they hungrily eyed the students.

"By the way, when you guys arrived, I sprayed you all with a hormone that drives these Grimm insane. So, let's just say that they are quite eager to bite all of you." Everyone's eyes were bulging.

"Are you insane! Those things are poisonous!" Weiss was near panic mode right now.

"Oh, don't worry. I have the antidote right here." He held up a box filled with needles. "However, if I have to save your ass then you have failed the first assignment."

All the students began taking a couple of steps away from the cage and Mr. H. He held up a string high above the air so that all could see it.

"Have fun!" Mr. H pulled on the string as hard as he could, and the screaming began.


	23. Chapter 23

**Hi. Here is another chapter. Sorry for the extreme delay. College started for me so expect updates to be even more sporadic. I'll try my best to keep this story alive, but if I do end up having to give this story up, I'll be sure to inform all of you to avoid giving any false hope. Also, I really had a hard time cranking this chapter out so sorry if the quality isn't as good. I didn't really have much time to go over this and revise. I was also running out of ideas...**

Ruby stared down with pity and sympathy at her spasming classmates who were not fast enough to climb up a tree or futilely tried to outrun the Komodo Ants before they were bitten. One of the poisoned students began choking in her own spit before Mr. H quickly flipped her onto her side. He wasn't really in much of a hurry to heal the students. As long as they got treatment within three hours, everything will be fine.

After the Komodo Ants bit the student, it ignored its doomed prey and began chasing the other healthier prey. Out of the 40 students who were assigned to the June class, only 24 made it up the tree. The rest were either not fast enough or were foolish enough to think that they could outrun the Komodo Ants. Funny enough, it seems that everybody who decided to climb a tree ended up on the same tree that team JNPR climbed, mainly because it was the only tree close enough that was tall and thick enough to withstand the Komodo Ants' attacks and jumps. As a result, there was a massive crowd of Grimm who was staring up at the weaponless students simply waiting. Thankfully, they weren't able to climb trees due to their anatomy.

"So… How's the view up there?" Ruby watched with her mouth hanging open as Mr. H simply stood in the middle of the crowd of Grimm and how they simply just ignored him.

"Bullshit!" Ruby didn't know who said that word, but everybody shared the same sentiment. Mr. H simply shrugged and explained that the Grimm was too focused on the students covered with the pheromones to even try and attack anything else. He then instructed the students to think of an escape plan by the time he came back from hauling the spasming students to safety. With that, everybody looked at each other in confusion.

"Well, shit. Now what?" Everybody gave a dead look at the girl who said it.

"Pyrrha. Any ideas?" Yang looked over at Pyrrha. Out of everyone here, it was Pyrrha who was closest to Mr. H and had an idea of his thinking. After all, it was Pyrrha who took the first action in climbing up a tree. Pyrrha cupped her chin and thought for a bit.

"We need to start moving soon. However, none of the trees nearby are tall or strong enough to support us. Those trees look way too flimsy to be able to withstand the Komodo Ants' attack. The trees that _can_ hold us up are too far away to jump towards…"

"Can't we try running towards them?" Pyrrha shook her head at Nora's suggestion and pointed at the Grimm.

"They are faster than us. They also outnumber us so splitting up won't work." Everybody sank into silence as they pondered their next step. None of them had their weapons so fighting wasn't a smart choice. They couldn't outrun the Grimm either. Normally, if they were in this situation, the standard protocol would be to contact someone for help. However, if they did, they would fail the first assignment…

"How about we split up and start escaping by jumping from tree to tree? Kind of like monkeys? It will take time for the Komodo Ants to knock down a tree and by that time we should have jumped to the other tree." Blake threw out this suggestion as she was one of the more agile students.

"Yeah, but not all of us are as agile. There are going to be some students who will slip. Also, I don't think the branches will be able to hold up our weight." Ren countered Blake's idea, and the students looked at the nearby trees' branches. They really were awfully thin.

While they were busy brainstorming ideas, they heard a small cough from under the tree. Low and behold, there was Mr. H… with a massive ax over his shoulder. The students stared at Mr. H, and Mr. H stared back. None of the students said anything as they were afraid of what the ax entailed. Then, Mr. H took the ax and embedded it into the tree causing it to groan and shake. The students went ballistic as many started gripping the tree and screaming. One of the students screamed 'you psycho!' at Mr. H.

"Who said I was a psycho?" There was no answer for no one was stupid enough to even consider answering. Mr. H slammed the ax into the tree even harder resulting in even more screams.

"I did tell you guys to think of an escape plan by the time I came back. Did you guys think of one yet?" No one said anything.

"I'm guessing no? Well, stress can be an excellent motivator, and thinking under stress is a very important tool for a Huntsman. Better hurry up." Another chop followed, and the tree started to groan. The students started to beg for mercy or started to hurl abuse at Mr. H for the unfair assignment. Eventually, someone had enough.

"Enough! We are huntsmen! Not screaming kids!" Surprisingly, it was Jaune who spoke up. Mr. H gave a double thumbs up at Jaune for taking the initiative.

"Okay. Because it would be too cruel to leave you _first years_ (*mumbles* freaking Glynda. Leaving me no fun. Don't traumatize them, my ass) to solve all this by yourself, I'll walk you guys through this. First, trust is extremely important in a situation such as this. You will get nowhere without trust. Second, make it clear what the objective is. Jaune. What is the objective right now?"

"Getting to the tower?" Mr. H sighed.

"Yes... What is the more _urgent_ objective?"

"Escape from this tree."

"How can you do that?"

"If we can get to the other thicker trees that are deeper in the forest, we'll be fine but…. They are too far away."

"So, now let's do an inventory and ability check. What do you guys have and are able to do right now? This is a question to all of you. Start discussing with everyone with what you guys have at your disposal right now and how you can make use of it. Don't be shy or suspicious of each other. Remember that trust is key." Everyone started looking at each other and their empty hands. All the students began wondering what Mr. H was talking about regarding inventory check.

Jaune stared down at his clothes as he began pondering what Mr. H could possibly mean by inventory check. Clothes… Clothes! Jaune was suddenly reminded of a time when he was playing hide and seek with his sisters. He was stuck on the third floor, but he managed to escape detection by tying multiple clothes together and using it as a rope to escape out the window. A huntsman's clothes were usually very tough and high quality due to the extreme situations Huntsmen tended to find themselves in so the clothes should be strong enough.

"Guys! Guys! I think I got it!" Jaune quickly began explaining to everyone his plan. He got many looks ranging from brilliant to pervert, but he was the only one with an idea at the present. All the students simultaneously looked down at Mr. H who was slowly shaking his head while rubbing his helmet.

"Oh…um… Sure! Points for… err… creativity! Yeah… Let's go with that! Um… How should I wing this?... Um… In the wild, you have to be willing to be placed in extremely awkward situations. Think of this as an exercise! Uh... what else… Chop-chop! You are wasting time!" Mr. H once more slammed his ax into the tree, and this time the tree began to sway dangerously. This spurred all the boys to start stripping off their clothes and began tying them together. After a quick glance at each other, the girls soon followed. Soon, all the students were stripped down to their underwear, and Nora was in charge of lassoing the closest tree.

As the line of clothes sailed through the air, everyone began praying that the line was long enough. They breathed a sigh of relief when Nora overshot the tree. By the 15th try and a whole lot of cursing later, the closest tall tree was lassoed and the rope made of clothes was quickly secured. Ruby looked at the makeshift rope with suspicion.

"So… Who's going first?" Once more things went quiet.

"I'll go first." It was Pyrrha who spoke up.

"I'll go with you. It was my plan after all." Jaune quickly added as he was definitely not going to let his partner risk herself alone.

Pyrrha got on the rope and began crawling across the rope like a sloth. Jaune soon followed. When they were half-way across the rope, Jaune made the mistake of looking at Pyrrha.

"Hey, Pyrrha. How are you holding…. Up….?" Jaune got a 1st class seat to Pyrrha in her underwear. And boy was she hot. It never really occurred to him just how sexy his partner really was until now. Maybe it was because he was too busy pining after Weiss, but now that he had gotten over it… He gulped as he watched how Pyrrha's breasts were held up by her bra, and he struggled to keep his eyes from looking at her red panties and how he could see the outline of her vagina. And damn was that a fine ass.

"Yeah. I'm doing alright. How about you?" Jaune shot his head away so fast he almost lost his grip.

"Y-yeah! I'm doing just fine!" Pyrrha noticed the awkward tone coming from Jaune, and she twisted to look at him.

'Oh Monty no.' Pyrrha movement caused her hips to sway and her breasts to jiggle. It was too late. Jaune's underwear was threatening to burst. This was an incredibly bad situation. Jaune immediately tried to hide his erection from his partner, but it was too late.

"Are you… sure… oh. Oh!" Pyrrha's eyes widened as she saw the widening tent on Jaune's underwear and his reddening face.

Jaune closed his eyes and braced himself for the screaming and the shouting, but nothing came. Curious, he opened his eyes to catch a small coy smile from Pyrrha before she looked away and started moving down the makeshift rope once more. He desperately tried to regain control of his lower body, but he swore that Pyrrha was not making it easy for him. It was like she was trying to force an even bigger reaction out of him with her exaggerated hip movements.

Thankfully, by the time he arrived at the tree and signaled to the rest of the classmates that it was safe, he managed to calm himself through sheer willpower and was desperately trying _not_ to stare at his partner who was wearing nothing but her underwear.

Ruby herself noticed how flushed that Jaune looked when she arrived at the tree. He also looked horrified when he realized that only a few people could wear their clothes again because it was impossible to untie the rope from the other side. As a result, the majority of people would have to complete the assignment in nothing but their underwear.

After a quick discussion, it was decided that everybody was to split up and go to the tower in separate ways. Mr. H's words about being a hindrance were not lost to the students. Team JNPR decided to take the long way around instead of going straight for the tower on Pyrrha's suggestion. They eventually came to a stop and looked at each other.

"What's the plan, leader?" Ren crossed his arms and looked at Jaune with a raised eyebrow.

Jaune looked down at the small group of Grimm who were still waiting for them. "First, let's find a river to throw these guys off our scent. I don't want to go any further with these guys hounding us."

As soon as he said those words, explosions and cussing rang out through the forest. Jaune sent a tired look towards Pyrrha's face. "You were right. He did booby trap this entire forest."

"Thought so. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that there is a river that way. I saw it while we were flying on the Bullhead. Also, I'm sort of familiar with his traps and all so I think I should lead. Ren should be a close second because he is observant enough to catch anything I might miss." The team unanimously voted to go with Pyrrha's suggestion. Pyrrha nodded and stretched before she prepared to jump to the next tree. Once more, Jaune felt his eyes being drawn to Pyrrha's chest. Internally shrieking, Jaune quickly averted his eyes.

On the other side, Pyrrha knew that Jaune was desperately struggling to control himself, and she was enjoying every second. The number of times when Pyrrha wondered if Jaune realized that she was a girl was too many to count. She still remembered the blank look that Jaune gave Pyrrha when she asked him which dress was cuter on her. His answer was pointing to an ugly tracksuit and said 'That tracksuit is more practical, don't you think?' It was a breath of relief to Pyrrha that Jaune did indeed see her as a member of the opposite sex. Perhaps it may be time for her to confess her feelings soon. But until then… Pyrrha didn't know if Lich did this on purpose, but Monty, she never realized how fun it was to tease her innocent partner.

Jaune, on the other hand, was fighting to keep himself and little Jaune under control. Nora was blissfully unaware of Jaune's predicament as she twirled and weaved her way through the forest, but, as a fellow man, Ren jumped over to Jaune and placed his hands on Jaune's shoulder. He saw Pyrrha's expression, and it took him a few seconds to get the situation. It was no secret that Pyrrha had feelings for Jaune. Ren merely gave a knowing smile.

"What's the smile for?" Ren's smile disappeared. It seems his team leader was denser than he thought. He instead left his team leader behind to convey his sympathies to Pyrrha.

"Hey, seriously! What was that smile for? Why did you look at me with pity like that! Hey, Ren! Wait up!"

Off a small distance from Team JNPR, Team RWBY was having a nice, peaceful stroll across the wood. They were holding hands as they jumped through the sunlit canopy with…

"No! Don't leave me like this! Stop it! Save me!"

"Ruby! Stop fooling around!"

"Yang! Watch out. There's a bomb…"

"Raaagh! My hair! I'll kill that asshole!"

"Hahaha. That serves you right… *smack*"

"*sigh* I'll grab her. *boom* Eww… Wait. Oh. No."

It was most definitely NOT a peaceful stroll in the woods. The entire woods was rigged with all sorts of traps and pranks that it drove Team RWBY to the breaking point in a matter of minutes. The only comforting thought was that many of the other teams were faring equally as bad.

Ruby was crying as she massaged her butt from a ruthless trap that pinned her down and continuously spanked her ass with a tree branch. Yang was trying to get a smelly red gunk away from her hair. Weiss was completely knocked out from a log that smacked her in the head. Only Blake was fine because she managed to avoid many of the bombs and numerous booty traps due to her keen senses. That said, Blake was unable to avoid all the traps as Blake soon found herself glued to Weiss' back due to a sticky bomb that triggered when she went to retrieve Weiss a couple of moments ago.

"What now?" Yang's question was quickly answered when two teams barreled past them at full speed screaming their lungs out. When team RWBY saw the reason for the screaming, they too joined in. Let it be said that a swarm of roaches can be a truly terrifying experience.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Yang yelled at the other students. A male dog Faunus who was leading the running students answered back with an 'I don't know!'

"What he means to say was that they burst out of the ground and began attacking everybody… Don't let them catch you or they will drag you down so the Grimm can finish you off! To be honest, we're all that's left. Everybody else got taken out." The male student running next to Yang clarified his partner's statement.

"Well, that's just fucking perfect!" Yang did a quick look at the people with her. Her partner Blake isn't going to be able to run for much longer because she was forced to run with Weiss as extra baggage. Suddenly, a whining sound could be heard behind them.

"Holy shit! They can fly!" Weiss took that moment to wake up and began screaming her head off at the incoming swarm of roaches.

"Shut it, Weiss! Don't yell in my ear!"

"Run faster!"

"The river! Get to that river!"

Without hesitation, everybody threw themselves into the river, and the rapid currents soon swept them away. However, another complication soon appeared.

"I can't swim!" Blake yelled in desperation as she desperately tried to keep her head above the roaring currents. She was about to say something else before she smashed onto a rock and disappeared beneath the current.

Weiss desperately tried to keep her teammates' head afloat, but she wasn't a strong enough swimmer to carry both of them. Thankfully, help arrived in the form of Team JNPR. Before the next curve, Jaune and Nora were able to push a rotten log over the river bank allowing the students to grab on and haul themselves up with the help of Pyrrha and Ren.

"Thanks." Pyrrha merely nodded as she patted Blake's back as she vomited on the river bank. The water managed to dissolve the glue so Weiss was nowhere near her teammate's vomit.

"Why did you jump into the most dangerous part of the river? If you wanted the Grimm to lose your scent, just go downstream a bit more to the calmer parts." Jaune asked Ruby who was the only one in any position to explain anything. The rest of the people were too busy groaning in pain.

"So... you jumped in the river to avoid a swarm of roaches?" Ruby shivered before she rebuked Jaune for underestimating such a swarm.

"Okay. Okay. No need to get so offensive."

"Sorry about that. It's... just been a long day today. I didn't mean to snap like that."

"Apology accepted. If you want, you could try and tag along with us. Ren has done a good job guiding us through the traps."

Everybody not in team JNPR stared at Ren. He simply shrugged and said that living in the streets at a young age taught him to be observant. Shop keepers had numerous ways to keep their wares safe after all. Blake nodded in understanding. The traps in this forest weren't that hard to avoid if one kept their eyes peeled. She shivered when she recalled a time when the White Fang tried to break into a Schnee Dust storage under the protection of the Death Knight. Half of her comrades were taken out by the traps. It was also this event that showed Blake how little Adam cared about his comrades. He continued to send people through the trap-riddled corridors even though the floor began to grow slick from the spilled blood of their fellow Faunus.

While everyone was taking a moment to catch their breath and plan their next move, Mr. H appeared from the canopy. He was traversing through the forest using his four mechanical arms, swinging from tree to tree. Near the river bank, he jumped down, shooting up gravel as he slid to a stop next to the students.

"Congrats! You are the finalists! How do you feel? I bet my little games were really fun to play, right! Ooh. Love what you did with our hair Yang. It really adds a _Yang_!" Ruby stared at Mr. H who had his arms wide open as if openly mocking them, and she felt something just snap within her. Without thinking, she used her semblance to rush over to him in an attempt to kick his legs out from under him. However, instead of Mr. H lying flat on the floor, Ruby found herself staring up at the blue sky and the wind knocked out of her lungs. Looking around, she saw that everyone was in a similar state except Team JNPR who managed to keep their cool.

"Since you are the finalists, I thought it necessary to reward you 16 with a valuable life lesson: the importance of keeping your emotions in check, especially you Yang. Because you let anger cloud your mind, you missed a really suspicious rock right next to me. I put emphasis on suspicious. Does this _look_ like a normal rock to you?" He then pointed to a rock that was shaped like a giant ass with smoke coming out of the crack.

"You got farted on by a rock... hehehe." The only reply he got was a collective groan.

"Mr. H... Why exactly are you here?" Ren slowly asked. He saw that Pyrrha and Jaune had a suspicious look as well. Nora was getting ready to make another run for it. Mr. H nodded at the team's suspicion as he held up a dart.

"I did say that I will be a hindrance to you guys. This dart has a Komodo Ant's venom on it." Mr. H began spinning the dart around his gloved hands. Everyone's blood ran cold at the sight.

"Congratulations. By using this river, you managed to throw off the Grimm from your scent as well as successfully avoiding the roaches. If you work together, you should be able to avoid the traps since you are aware that I have booby-trapped the entire forest." Step by step, the students began shirking away from Mr. H.

"However, life is unfair. In order to simulate that, it is now my turn to terrorize you guys. Run." Mr. H flicked the dart at Pyrrha who managed to roll forward just in time to dodge the attack. While she was rolling, she picked up a fist-size rock in order to throw it at Mr. H when she came to a stop. That was the signal for everyone to split up in order to escape. Fighting Mr. H was a lost cause, and only one person in their team needed to get to the tower.

Ruby activated her semblance and zoomed away into the forest. However, she did not get very far before she found herself ensnared in another trap. It managed to catch Ruby's cape with hooks jolting her to a stop. Ruby desperately tried to free herself, but it was too late. She froze when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Tut. Tut. Ruby. Since you haven't completely mastered your semblance, you can't maneuver very well when you activate it. Yet, you STILL thought it was a good idea to activate it in a booby-trapped forest?"

"Um... Lesson learned?"

"I guess this is the result of having skipped a couple of years. Huh." Ruby gave the best puppy eyes she could muster.

"Let me go please?" Mr. H cocked his helmet.

"How about no?" He was about to bring the dart down on Ruby, but a flaming fist forced him to dodge out of the way.

"Tch."

"Nice try Yang, but stealth isn't really your strong suit."

Mr. H already heard footsteps behind him when he was talking with Ruby. In a way, he was already expecting one of the students to try and ambush him. Yang was on the top of his list of potential ambushers, especially so when it was Ruby he was going to capture first.

Yang, realizing that her ambush failed, immediately went on the offensive throwing punch after punch only for them all to be avoided or deflected. Eventually, Mr. H grabbed Yang's wrist and twisted causing her to lose her balance providing a perfect opportunity for him to quickly go behind Yang. He made a feint to finish off Yang with the dart, but he instead backflipped in order to dodge a tackle from Blake.

Blake was the second person he expected to try and ambush him since Mr. H was aware that Blake knew the futility of running from him. The Death Knight never let his prey get away. The only way of winning was to buy time for her other teammate to reach the end. Because he knew Blake's train of thought, he was keeping his guard up for another ambush attack.

Yang and Blake nodded to each other as they quickly ran to opposite sides in an attempt to force Mr. H to show his back to one of them. However, Mr. H soon activated his four mechanical arms and charged Blake. He knew that the arms would be enough to keep Yang occupied while Blake would need direct confrontation. Judging from the sounds of cursing from behind him, he was right.

Blake attempted to smash a rock on Mr. H's helmet and succeeded. After seeing the helmet ringing from the impact and believing that Mr. H to be concussed, she tried to go in for an uppercut but was countered with a straight jab into her stomach. Another swipe to the jaw of her surprised face knocked Blake out.

Yang... She was struggling in trying to even get close enough to Mr. H's main body. If Yang had her gauntlets, she would have been able to blow the arms away, but Yang was currently weaponless. In addition, Yang wasn't agile enough to close the distance due to the arm swipes and lunges from the whirring mechanical arms that could retract and extend accordingly. This was one of the times that she wished that she had Blake's agility. Wait... Only three arms were currently attacking her right now. Why was the fourth arm all limp like that attached to the ground? Yang's question was answered when the fourth mechanical arm erupted out of the ground, nailing her on the chin as it shot upwards. Yang's lights went out.

"Tch. Didn't even use my dart."

Mr. H looked to where Ruby should have been, but he only saw a ripped cape. It seems that she escaped, but judging from the direction she went and Ruby's inexperience in the field... when Mr. H heard the explosion he already knew that Ruby had triggered the knockout gas. There was no need to chase after her.

A cycle of screams and silence soon filled the forest. The silence followed by screams usually marked the fall of a student. Pyrrha counted them all in her head. After the 11th scream, Pyrrha concluded that she may very well be the last person. It was entirely possible that Lich took out a couple with a surprise attack instead so no screams would be heard. She gripped a bottle that was packed full of metal shards. Perhaps this was what Mr. H meant by placing trust in each other. Would things have turned out differently if she trusted the others with knowledge of her semblance sooner? Was all of this her fault? Guilt began pouring through her heart as she desperately tried to flee towards the tower. Suddenly, her train of thought was interrupted when she heard someone yelling her name from behind her. She saw Jaune and a dog Faunus chasing after her.

"What are you two idiots doing! You just gave away our position with that yelling as well as gave him a chance to take all three of us out!" Jaune came to a stop in front of Pyrrha and took a deep breath before explaining his thought process.

"Pyrrha. Hear me out. First, Nora and this guy's partner are going to sacrifice themselves to buy as much time for us as possible so we have some time to make a plan." Pyrrha scrunched up her eyebrows in disbelief.

"We HAVE a plan. Split up and run for the tower. Not doing something stupid like trying to fight Mr. H."

This time it was the dog Faunus who interrupted her. "That plan's NOT working. He got everyone except us five. Three since Nora and Pete, my partner, are going to get taken out soon."

"Sorry, but who are you?" Due to the tension, Pyrrha snapped at the Dog Faunus.

The Faunus student coughed into his hand. "Sorry about that. We're in different homerooms so we probably never met, but my name is Alpha from Team PAIR. I know of who you are though."

"Doesn't everyone," Pyrrha responded dryly.

Jaune coughed into his hand bringing the attention back to him. "Uhh. Pyrrha. Instead of fighting, let's plan out how we are going to defeat Mr. H."

"We can't defeat him."

"What do you mean? Only one of our teammates need to get to the tower to win, right?" Pyrrha's eyes brightened as she latched on to Jaune's intentions. Jaune took that as a signal to continue.

"You still have those pills, right?" Pyrrha nodded and thrust her hand between her breasts.

"Woah."

"Oh... I'll just look that way." Pyrrha looked with a tired expression toward the two blushing boys.

"What? It's not like I had anywhere else to place it."

Jaune mumbled something before he slapped his cheeks to cool his head. "Alright. Here is what I was thinking."

While the trio was busy brainstorming, Mr. H ended his fight with Nora by ramming his fifth needle into Nora's neck who finally succumbed to the poison and began spasming on the ground.

"Sheesh. You have an insane tolerance to this toxin. Are you sure your semblance isn't detoxification?"

Mr. H knelt down and administered the antidote to Nora who passed out in relief. This only meant that three people were left: Jaune, Alpha, and Pyrrha. Out of the three, it was Pyrrha he was the most worried about. A skeletal bird landed on his shoulder to hand him a paper stating the three's location. He cocked his head in confusion.

"Jaune and Alpha I understand, but even Pyrrha? Hmm... Does she actually think that she can defeat me without her weapons? Unless..." Mr. H quickly ran inventory and threw out every metal that could be affected by Pyrrha's semblance. His armor was mainly safe due to its unique alloy, and the needles were made from titanium. His mechanical arms would have to be discarded though. Pyrrha wasn't alone so magic was out of the table. It seems he was going to the fight with his bare hands and a handful of needles.

While he carefully proceeded to the last reported position of the three, he paused when he saw a footprint. Pyrrha wasn't that careless... It seems that she was trying to lead him into an ambush... Suddenly, the bushes to his left and right parted to reveal Jaune and Alpha rushing towards him. Jaune was wielding a thick tree branch as a shield while Alpha was using an improvised mace and chain made from a rock, branch, and... was that a bra?

While Mr. H was stunned from the implications that Pyrrha was perhaps bra-less at the moment, it gave the two boys an opening. Jaune rammed into his chest plate with his improvised shield while Alpha smashed the rock on to Mr. H's helmet. The duo's triumphant grins disappeared when Mr. H responded by smashing his foot onto Jaune's foot causing him to howl in pain while he punched his armored fist directly into the diaphragm of Alpha. Mr. H wasn't even staggering from the attacks.

Mr. H looked coldly at the two boys. "Oye. You pieces of shit didn't do anything... _interesting_ to Pyrrha while I wasn't looking were you."

Jaune recovered first. "Well, she was right about one thing. It surprised you, right?"

Mr. H paused and laughed as he realized that he has just been played. He clapped his hands loudly, and yelled, "Well played, Pyrrha. Well played! Now then, I think you boys should know what's going to happen now."

Alpha recovered his breath and unsteadily slid behind Jaune. "Holy shit. That guy punches like a freaking train! I have no aura left after taking that punch! AND! What type of fucking armor does this guy have? Not even aura can protect someone from a smash to the head like that. At the very least, the pain should have transferred."

"I don't know, but I've seen him shrug off Ruby's 50 cal dust bullets to the chest like it was a mere annoyance," Jaune whispered back.

"Are you fucking serious? No matter how good body armor is, it will still leave a massive bruise and broken bones. For crying out loud, not even aura can block a shot from that loli's gun very well."

"Hey, don't let Ruby know that you just called her a loli. She's kinda sensitive about... Holy Oum! Get ready!"

Jaune quickly blocked Mr. H's needles with his shield and shifted to the side to block a punch that was aimed for Alpha. Jaune grunted at the sheer impact, but he stood his ground. If there was one thing he was good at, it was defense. His high aura levels and pain tolerance allowed him to be able to tank many hits for his teammates.

While Jaune was in the front desperately trying to hold off Mr. H's attacks, Alpha ran off to the side and began smashing his weapon onto the armor to no effect. All attempts by Mr. H to engage Alpha was successfully interrupted by Jaune. Eventually, Alpha decided to use his mace and chain as a whip to wrap around a leg and pulled. Surprisingly, Mr. H went down quite easily.

Alpha quickly took advantage by placing Mr. H in a chokehold while Jaune held down Mr. H's legs, and they both yelled, "Pyrrha now!"

Pyrrha burst out of her hiding place from a burrow under the tree and popped open her bottle of metal shards. She then proceeded to cram them all into all the joints of Mr. H's armor, turning his armor into a prison.

"Okay. You can let him go now." Alpha nodded as he released his grip, causing Mr. H to simply fall over onto his face. The armor groaned as he tried to move, but the iron shards stuck in his joints made it impossible to move.

Pyrrha let out a huge sigh of relief as the shards held. She looked over to Jaune. "Your plan actually worked."

Jaune stared at the unmoving form before turning to face Pyrrha. "I'm just happy that we aren't using Plan B. Although Alpha... Keep Pyrrha's semblance a secret. We really took a big risk revealing it to someone not in our team..."

"I gave you my word Jaune. I meant it." Jaune nodded in reassurance.

"Hey... Hey Pyrrha!" The three looked down at the struggling form who was face down on the ground.

"Your boobs are covered up, right? These guys didn't touch you in any weird places, right? Jaune, you better thank Pyrrha for..." Whatever Mr. H was going to say was cut short as Pyrrha began stomping on his helmet to quickly shut him up.

"Umm..." Pyrrha whipped around to glare at Alpha. "So... Is Mr. H like your adopted brother or something?"

Pyrrha sighed. "It's... complicated."

She then glared at the form on the ground. "And no. I am perfectly alright, and I am wearing leaves. Sheesh."

"Oh. That's good." Upon hearing those words, everything went horribly wrong. Pyrrha first noticed the change in expression in the boys' faces as well as a shadow coming over her. A wave of heat blasted her back. Without thinking, Pyrrha threw herself forward and looked back.

Mr. H's armor was bright red with heat, and streams of molten iron oozed down the armor. The grass around him was set ablaze from the intense heat. Pyrrha cursed as she completely forgot about Lich's ability to use bullshit magic. She looked at Jaune and Alpha who both had horrified expressions on their faces.

"Ho-How!" Alpha looked close to pissing himself in fear as he stares slack-jawed at the smoking form of the teacher. What type of semblance did this teacher have? Jaune, on the other hand, was absolutely baffled at the show of strength. He knew that Mr. H was strong, but this... this was on another level. Was this the true strength of professional Huntsmen?

"Duck!" Pyrrha yelled as she rolled to the left, but the boys were too dumbfounded to dodge the needles. The two went down and began to spasm from the toxin that rampaged throughout their body.

"Excellent job. Truly. Shame that your opponent was me." Pyrrha immediately ran for the safety of the trees. It was time to enact Jaune's Plan B.

Judging from the footsteps behind her, Lich was closing in... fast. She reached over and yanked on a vine to spring a trap that they re-engineered from one of the original booby traps. A log burst from the canopy and swung towards Lich. He didn't even slow down as he smashed his way through. However, the log occupied his attention long enough to hide a low-lying rope causing him to trip. By the time he got back to his feet, Pyrrha gained some much-needed distance.

"So that's how you want to play."

Pyrrha quickly noticed that Lich had enough of her games. She knew this when she saw him create a massive metal sword from the dirt and began to quite literally mow down every single tree in his path. With every tree he cut down, many traps that Pyrrha was planning to use were activated too early from the shock. Cursing, Pyrrha quickly realized the futility of trying to run any further. Instead, she decided to surprise Lich by taking the initiative by charging at him.

Due to the massive size of the sword, Lich was unable to block Pyrrha's running tackle. Afterward, a furious wrestling match occurred as both tried to get the upper hand. Due to Lich's reluctance to severely injure Pyrrha, Pyrrha was able to drag out the fight for about 10 minutes, but it ended with Lich pinning Pyrrha down.

"I win. Surrender." Pyrrha then began to laugh hysterically.

"You sure about that?" Just then, two fireworks burst into the sky signaling that two people made it to the end goal.

"What... How the hell..."

Pyrrha smiled as she recalled Plan B. Using Pyrrha's medicine, the boys will willingly try to get hit by the needles and pretend to be incapacitated. Then, it was Pyrrha's turn to distract Mr. H for as long as possible, giving time for the boys to get to the end goal. Lich completely fell for it.

"... You are going to tell me how you managed to pull this off because this is just embarrassing."


	24. Chapter 24

**Hello. Due to RL stuff, it's getting really hard to update as frequently as I used to. In fact, consider this update speed the norm. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Well into the night, everyone managed to regain their consciousness, but their condition could be better for most. Many were vomiting, nauseated, and dizzy. Of course, Mr. H showed no mercy when he didn't hesitate in ordering the students to go to the tower's cafeteria instead of the wonderful paradise known as their beds as soon as he heard that everyone woke up. And so here was Ruby trying to keep her head from spinning from the aftereffects of the knockout gas.

"Yang… Is this what it's like to have a hangover? I don't like it. Make it go away. Also, that smell is awful." Yang's response was to only groan as she held an ice bag to her bruise on the jaw. To Yang's left, Blake was also holding an ice bag but to her temple instead. However, both of the girls had a hard time complaining about their situation due to the state that Weiss was in.

Weiss ended up falling into a pit filled with decomposing scraps of food after getting knocked out by a trap. In other words, she unwittingly ended up bathing in a pile of crap until the end of the match. As a result, there was an extremely sour, disgusting smell coming from Weiss as well as bit and pieces of decomposing matter still smearing her white hair for she was still not able to wipe it all off. Needless to say, very few people were sitting near team RWBY. So far, Weiss has been disturbingly quiet about her situation; however, nobody had the guts to say that she was calm. There was something off about Weiss at the moment. One could tell just by looking at her eyes. And the way she just twirled the pencil around her fingers… a very sharp pencil.

It also didn't help her mood that _someone_ installed a pig pen into the cafeteria. A pig looked at Weiss's eyes, and Weiss stared back. The pig licked its lips. Weiss growled as she threatened to get up to stab the pig with her pencil when…

The gloomy atmosphere was interrupted when Mr. H burst through the doors with light bouncy steps as he got up onto the podium and began his little speech on congratulating the winners as well as analyzing the mistakes made in today's assignment. He pointed out how everyone failed to keep on their toes, how many failed to adapt to new sudden developments, and how many still lacked proper situational awareness. In other words, everyone was still trying to apply textbook knowledge into the real world. Afterward, he began laying out the planned schedule, and many people blanched at the amount of sparring and field assignments that were crammed into one day.

"Now then. Now comes the moment of truth. You might as well set today as the standard. There is no shame in wanting to leave. I did say that this class will be a crash course for advanced classes that you will be taking in your 2, 3, or even 4th year. Now is your last chance to leave. You don't have to tell me now, but fill out this form and turn it in by midnight. I'll have a Bullhead take you out early next morning."

As soon as he said those words, Weiss's pencil snapped. She stood up abruptly and pointed at Mr. H with an accusing look. "You think I am just going to leave without paying you back at least once? I am not budging until I pay you back for this… this… humiliation ten-fold."

Many nodded in agreement as Mr. H let the wave of emotions rush past him as he slowly took in the grim determination that permeated from everybody in the room. It seems that he has quickly become the number one enemy from the first day. That was good for everything was going exactly as planned… except for two teams managing to win. That one was a big blow to his pride. Maybe he should really stop fooling around and actually get serious against these first years, especially against Pyrrha. Anyway, it was necessary to fuel the hatred even more. He needed the students to understand the importance of controlling their emotions. Thus, it was on to stage 2.

"Excellent. Let the hate flow through you. Cough. Cough. Never mind. By the way, I am participating in the class free-for-all so you can try and pay me back during those class times. Welp, I am glad that you guys are all motivated. I was kind of worried that more than half of you were going to leave."

"Not until we shove a boot up your ass!"

"I'm going to put hot sauce over all over your toilet paper!"

"I'm going to paint your armor pink if it's the last thing I do!"

"Hahaha. We'll see about that. Now before dinner comes out, I would like to point something out." Mr. H then clapped his hands to regain the student's attention and pointed at the pig pen. "Now, many of you may be wondering why I have a pig pen installed here."

Pyrrha rubbed her head as she felt the "troll" oozing out from Lich. This was going to be interesting for the lack of a better word. Oh. Monty. Carts of delicious foods and snacks were being carted in by drones. She saw how Ruby perked up at the sight of cookies while Blake was drooling at the sight of salmon. Yup. This was going to be interesting, and she had a really bad feeling about this. There was no way in all of Remnant that Lich wasn't salty about losing.

"First, the 8 winners get their delicious dinner!" All of Team JNPR and PAIR's favorite foods were laid out in front of them while everyone else's foods got suspiciously close to the pig pen.

"You see. My plan was actually to have a pork barbeque with these pigs as a consolidatory dinner… but to my surprise, eight of you actually blew past my expectations and won! So, of course, I have to reward these eight fellas with an amazing dinner while the rest of you…"

Mr. H snapped his fingers, and the entire class watched in despair and disbelief as all the delicious food fell into the pig pen to the glee of its residents. Ruby and Blake were among the many students who collapsed from their seats and onto their knees and arms at the sight of their supposed-to-be pork dinner eating the student's favorite dishes.

"Don't worry! I am not cruel. I'm not going to have you go to bed on an empty stomach. This is your food." Another snap and sloppy gruel with a foul smell permeating from the top with a pitiful salad on the side came in on a cart and were placed in front of all the students minus the eight winners. It was clear from everyone's expression that nobody was willing to eat the gruel, and some were picking at the lettuce.

"Now, I can already tell from your expressions that you are less than thrilled about your current dinner. It's actually edible. It's fermented skate fish gruel. But… I am going to give you a chance to earn the right to eat the delicious dinner that Team PAIR and JNPR have rightfully won today. If you can defeat one of their team members in the daily free-for-all, your team can take their place! In other words, YOU will be able to eat this scrumptious double-layered chocolate chip cookie while THEY eat the gruel. Or… you can try to defeat me and I'll reward you without the need for replacement." A pig promptly trotted over and began munching on the cookie.

Everybody's eyes zeroed in on Team JNPR and PAIR. Pyrrha was screaming every single swear in her head. This was just perfect. Lich just made her team a target as well. This wasn't good. Everyone learned today of the difficulty of trying to defeat their teacher and, for Huntsman and Huntresses, good food usually ranks higher than pity vengeance. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

"Oh. And the winners can't share their food or else they lose their spot. Well, I have work to finish up and have a good dinner!" With those words, Mr. H walked out of the room. As soon as he walked out, Ruby ran into the pig pen and got into a fight with a pig over the last scrap of the cookie. As Ruby was seriously considering the plausibility of butchering the pig for its meat while chomping away on the mud-covered cookie, Mr. H peeked his head back in and said, "I also won't mind if the pigs _mysteriously_ disappeared. Just no blood _inside_ the building. Also, there are only enough pigs to feed about 20 people."

A second passed before a complete free-for-all started between the students over who had the rights towards the pigs. Pyrrha watched the vicious fight with a sinking feeling in her gut. She looked over to her partner Jaune who also had a similar expression. The next few weeks were going to be horrible.

She was right. For the very next day, her team was surrounded by 4 other teams during the free-for-all. Only Team RWBY was insane enough to take on Mr. H. Team PAIR had the attention of the rest of the classmates, but they were in no position to help for they had adopted a hit-and-run tactic to avoid being surrounded themselves. However, Team JNPR was unable to do a similar tactic due to Jaune. He was not yet experienced enough to use Aura to amplify his speed.

However, that still did not mean that Team JNPR was hopeless. Team JNPR had two team members who were personally trained by Mr. H, and two team members who grew up on the streets. They were not going to give up their position so easily. Many attacked Jaune especially thinking him to be the weak link, but to everyone's surprise, he was tankier than he looked.

"Nora! DO IT!" Jaune yelled as he grappled with an entire team all by himself. The four huntress-in-training thought he was bluffing for he would be caught up in the blast as well. He wasn't. Jaune's aura reserves meant that he could take a couple of Nora's grenades to the face and come out with a couple of scratches. The same could not be said for Jaune's four opponents who were left smoking on the burnt grass.

Jaune hastily shook off the dizziness and began fighting to rejoin Pyrrha… Well, perhaps fighting wasn't the right word. "Juggernauted" towards Pyrrha would be a better choice. He dashed towards Pyrrha without any considerations for the people who tried to stop him. He simply barreled past them and pushed them aside with his aura-infused strength. Jaune was filling out the position of a 'tank' quite nicely. Heck, his sword could transform into a 20mm cannon. Granted, it could only fire 5 rounds, but 1 good hit with an AP round was all it took to put down a huntsman for good. He couldn't use those rounds on his classmates though…

As a result, he simply had to settle with his electrified shield and sword with a liberal use of a longsword created from combining his sword with the shield. He switched between the two styles in order to confuse his opponents. One of his classmates rushed at him with his mace, expecting Jaune to block it with a shield. Jaune juked his classmate by quickly switching to his longsword, sidestepped, and rammed his hilt into his attacker's open stomach. Someone tried to take a swipe at his back, but Pyrrha quickly intercepted the ambush and kicked her away.

"Watch your back!"

"You're watching it for me!" Pyrrha blushed at the compliment, but she couldn't savor the moment because she had to dodge a flying Ruby.

"Owowowow. This SUCKS! How can he keep up with my speed?" Ruby wrenched her scythe out and began sniping, only for Mr. H to use Weiss as a shield to block her shots.

"WATCH IT, CRATER FACE!"

"Sorry!" Ruby quickly gave up on sniping and activated her semblance to rejoin the fight as fast as possible. Jaune whistled at the intense fight between Mr. H and Team RWBY. It was clear that Mr. H was playing with them. The reason? He was literally fighting them with only 2 of his mechanical arms and while hopping around on one leg. Team RWBY on the other hand… It seems Weiss was about to go nuclear just like Yang… Never mind. Weiss was frustrated to the point of turning the entire other half of the arena into an ice rink.

Jaune and Pyrrha were distracted by the fight so they did not see the hammer until it was too late. Well, Pyrrha saw it, but Jaune was too slow to react, and he ended up getting slammed in the face. His aura groaned as it tried to disperse the energy, but some got through resulting in a broken nose. Jaune reeled forward from the pain, and while he was blinded from the tears, his attacker tried to finish him off, but Pyrrha threw her shield knocking out the classmate before he got to deal the finishing blow.

"Jaune. Your nose. Let me see."

"Pyrrha!" Jaune quickly pulled Pyrrha down into a hug and rolled away to dodge a fireball. While Pyrrha was admiring Jaune's newly shaped chest muscles, Jaune immediately screamed for a switch to plan F.

A massive explosion preceded Nora's arrival as she landed right next to a blushing Pyrrha. "You sure about this?"

"Yes. Ren! Buy us time!" Jaune nodded as Ren suddenly popped into view in order to engage all the classmates who were cautiously approaching Team JNPR.

"Hit me." Jaune nodded at Nora's words as he overcharged his electric shield and slammed it on Nora's back. At the same time, he placed his sword on the top of Nora's hammer in order to make some sort of makeshift lightning rod.

"Ren!"

"Way ahead of you." Ren took cover behind Jaune right next to Pyrrha. The classmates he was just fighting was shocked at how quickly Ren pulled away from the fight and got into defensive positions in order to prepare for whatever Jaune was planning.

Ren then whispered to Pyrrha, "I talked with Mr. H three days ago. I really think you should just get this over with and confess before Mr. H does something really stupid. It's also really painful to watch."

"Wait, what?" Ren gave a thumbs up before crouching down and covering his ears.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Jaune yelled as he pulled his shield away and braced it. Nora yelled as she used the sword as a conducting point to send blasts of electricity towards everyone in the vicinity. Jaune used his immense aura reserves to survive the onslaught while everyone near Team JNPR struggled to dodge or endure the shocks. In the end, many ended up smoking on the ground. Team JNPR has protected their right to eat a dinner fit for royalty for one more night.

"YOSH! Pancakes for dinner again!" Nora began dancing her special victory dance and began cartwheeling around her three kneeling teammates.

"I'll have to think of new strategies… Nobody is going to fall for what we did twice." Ren nodded.

"I have to say, but you surprised me with your strategies sometimes. Like in the very beginning, you played everyone's motives like that and made everyone fight each other." Jaune merely shrugged.

"Mr. H helped me with strategic and tactical planning. He helped make a lot of parallels to the board and card games I played with my sisters. As the only male, it was very easy for the sisters to sometimes gang up on me. I had to find some way in order to take some of the weight of me. I just applied the same reasoning here."

"And the lightning attack?"

"Movie I watched with Mr. H when he was trying to teach me about group attacks."

"You are one fast learner, you know that?"

"I just think I have a great teacher."

"Well, I can't argue that one. He is pretty amazing… despite his flaws."

"What was that?" Ren nearly cursed as he realized that Jaune didn't know about Mr. H's 'health' condition.

"Ah, nothing." Pyrrha thankfully came to Ren's rescue as she began fussing over Jaune's crooked nose. Eventually, she had Jaune sit still as she set Jaune's nose back with a loud crack. After sending Jaune with Nora to the infirmary, she rounded back to Ren and demanded what he meant by his words of confessing.

"Well, you know about Mr. H's… how should I put this…"

"The highly illegal liquor business that he is doing right under Glynda's nose?"

"Yeah. Funny how she hasn't caught him yet."

"Oh she has, but she could never get enough evidence to get Mr. H kicked out for it. She's trying, but she has practically given up by this point. Now she just settles for sniffing out his alcohol stash and throwing it out."

"Well… I was taste testing some of his liquor…" Pyrrha snorted as she tried to imagine Ren of all people breaking a law and committing underaged drinking. She was about to say that it was a good joke, but she saw that he was completely serious.

"… You're serious?"

"Yes. He got his hands on some really good sake… It was the same brand that my father liked. The company that made it ended up getting destroyed by a Grimm attack so I thought that I would never get to see it again, but…"

"You don't have to explain. I figured that you had to have some good reason to be helping Mr. H with this."

"Thanks for understanding… I really hope you can forgive me for what I did next though. I've been trying to work up the courage to tell you of what I did. Seeing you fight with Jaune sort of gave me the push…" Pyrrha's eyes hardened, and she prepared herself for some bad news.

"So, I was testing some of Mr. H's homemade liquor…" Pyrrha already made a face. This story was already taking a bad turn.

"Normally, I can handle liquor. Well, I practically abused my liquor a crap ton when I worked for questionable… let's not go there. However, Mr. H's liquor had me drunk after like 3 shots… While I was drunk, well… I may have mentioned how someone who is too cowardly to confess probably doesn't love or trust the other person enough to overcome the fear so…" Pyrrha's eyes narrowed.

"So? Go on. You can't stop there."

"I may have given him the idea that if you haven't worked up enough courage by today, he will actively work on getting Jaune a new girlfriend in order to get you to move on with your life." Pyrrha's face froze.

"Uh… Pyrrha? You alri-" Ren never finished his words as Pyrrha uppercut Ren in the jaw and began dragging his unconscious ass towards the infirmary. All the while, she was mumbling about how she really needed a break from Lich's shenanigans. Every time he gets involved things tend to go insane.

A small part of Pyrrha hoped that Mr. H was bluffing, but it was not something Pyrrha was willing to gamble on. Then again, maybe it was high time for her to confess. Pyrrha began to break down the situation. Jaune did see Pyrrha as a woman, and he was impressed by what he saw if his reaction was any indication. Perhaps she did have a chance after all. So far, he didn't have anyone in mind. He has gotten over Weiss. They spent a lot of time together, and Jaune seemed to enjoy it.

Pyrrha stopped and sighed. Perhaps it was high time to confess. Lich was right that the only way to get through dense people like Jaune was to do it directly without any confusion. No amount of hinting will ever get through to them.

Ren moaned, and Pyrrha glared down at him. She would have _preferred_ if she had more time, but _someone_ had to make things more difficult. If this went poorly, she was going to have Ren take responsibility and have him buy all the ice cream she needs. She could also probably blackmail Lich into giving her some of his strongest liquor as well.

After she deposited Ren in the infirmary to Nora's surprise, Pyrrha climbed onto the elevator and went up to the rooftop. To her expectation, she saw Lich laying down staring at the setting sun. She sat down next to him.

"So… I heard everything from Ren." Lich didn't even look up as he immediately began listing off his plans.

"Good. In your room, you'll find a dress and your favorite make up set. I'm going to prep Jaune up. I also have a bullhead to take you two out to this special 5-star restaurant. I already set everything up with excuses for your classmates. Once you finish dinner, you will have a limo take you guys to this flower park. I already went there with Yang, and it is quite impressive. Great for a romantic setting and a confession. Don't chicken out. If it doesn't work out, you deserve someone better. However, if you want my honest opinion, I truly think he will accept your confession. No jokes." Pyrrha stepped back with her mouth opening and closing in surprise.

"Why?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you going so far for this? This isn't your love life. Why are you butting in like this?" Lich took a big sigh and leaned back.

"Yeah. You are right. This isn't my love life. I really didn't want to butt in. I really _shouldn't_ butt in. However, I'm going to be honest with you. I truly want you to be happy. At first, I was planning on keeping my involvement to a minimum, but… The way you were handling your crush with Jaune was just asking for a tragedy. It may not have happened to me, but I have seen it happen a couple times. Happened to one of my best friend back at Earth actually. Never worked up his courage. He let his chance get away from him. He had difficulty moving on, and he took solace in alcohol for some time before some buddies and I slapped some sense back into him. I don't want to see you make the same mistake." Pyrrha was quiet as she listened to one of Lich's nostalgic moments.

"Did you know that I saw a couple of girls making some moves on Jaune a week ago? He's not bad looking, and he's been making some impressive improvements. Girls do like hard-working men, and Jaune's… quirks do have its charms. I really didn't want to push this, but I had no choice. Jaune is practically acting like those dense virgins, and it really wouldn't take long for a more confident girl to steal his heart. You need to make your move now. I can't shield him anymore. So please… Use this chance to do it. Also…" Lich grabbed Pyrrha's hands and gripped it.

"Have some faith in me. I really wouldn't be trying to have you confess if I truly thought you had no chance at this. If that was the case, I would have already set up Jaune with someone else so that you could move on with your life. So please. Just trust me on this." Pyrrha sighed as she mulled over Lich's words. Finally, she accepted her situation. Although she would have preferred that she settle this herself, it was nice to know that she had someone that supported her like this. However…

"Lich… If this doesn't work… Actually, even if this does work…" He nodded motioning her to continue.

" _Don't_ interfere with my life at this level ever again." He made a subtle movement with his shoulders, indicating that he winced.

"You're mad aren't you?"

"Yes. I am _livid._ I don't need you to babysit me. I can live my own life, and I will make these mistakes on my own and learn from them. I'm no longer the little girl in the underground cave anymore. I can make my own choice, be they good or bad. Having you spoon feed me 'happiness', isn't really happiness, is it?" Lich stared at Pyrrha with a shocked posture. He slowly began nodding as the meaning of her words

"Sorry. Now that I think about, I did get carried away…"

"I'm glad that you want to support me, but this? This isn't supporting, but borderline manipulating things so that things go your way. It's kind of scary, to be honest. You can't try and control people like this even if it is with good intentions. Like you always used to say…"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Lich and Pyrrha looked at each other as they came to a silent agreement.

"So be it. This will hopefully be the last time I will do something at this level. However, I will still interfere from time to time, _especially_ if your life is in danger. Pyrrha, you have to understand what you mean to me." This time, it was Pyrrha who gripped Lich's hand.

"I know." Pyrrha smiled reassuringly. "However, I also hope that someday you will be able to let go. You know as well as I do that I won't live forever."

Lich took a shaky breath. "Don't remind me. However, I am fairly confident that I will be able to accept your death better if you die after living a long fulfilling life surrounded by loved ones. I will have a harder time accepting your death in any other situation. Do me a favor and make sure that is how you die."

"You know I can't promise that since I am a huntress."

"Yeah. I know. Which is why I hope that you can forgive me if I do end up going too far sometimes. I will try to balance it, but I really do want you to die in your old age with a smile of no regrets. Unlike someone like me who _can't_ die and is _full_ of regrets. Okay?"

"Okay. Shake on it?" Pyrrha extended her hand, and Lich shook it with a firm grip. Lich then proceeded to chuckle then explode with one of his rare hearty laughs.

"You really did grow up. Come here." Lich pulled in Pyrrha, gave her one of his big bear hugs, and ruffled her hair. She wriggled her way out and glared at him with a humorous glint in her eyes. Lich then motioned her to get going. She had a date to go on after all.

"Lich?"

"Yeah?"

"I've always wanted a brother. I wonder if this is what it is like to have an older one?"

"… Thanks. Nice to know that I have someone who views me like a family in this world." With a nod, Pyrrha turned around and began rushing for the stairs. Her mind was racing over all the things she had to do in order to get ready for her date. Once she was bounding down the stairs, Lich sat down with a heavy oomph.

"A family huh… I kind of want to find my special someone, too, all of a sudden." He stared down at his armored hands. "Is it possible? In my situation? In my state of mind?"

He then looked up at the nearly setting sun. "Can I move on?" Grabbing the rails, he leaned into the wind even though he won't feel them. Nearby, someone who was eavesdropping quietly sneaked away with blonde hair fluttering up with the wind.

While Pyrrha was busy putting on make-up with the help of Nora and preparing herself for a date, Jaune found himself wondering what the fuck was going on as Lich was trying to remember how to tie a tie.

"Okay. Explain to me one more time why I need to wear this suit and why I need to take Pyrrha out for dinner." Mr. H was mumbling about whether he needed to twirl the tie one more time or if he had to put it in the loop…

"Mr. H!"

"Yeah?"

"Why do…"

"I heard you the first time. As a reward for winning twice, you showed me immense growth over 1 semester. I decided it was high time to reward you with something special so I reserved a nice restaurant for you and Pyrrha."

"Why just the two of us? Why not all of our team?"

"Too expensive for all of you, and Pyrrha deserved to be rewarded as well because she was heavily involved in your improvement after all. I decided to kill two birds with one stone by doing things this way." Jaune was going to call bullshit on Mr. H's words. He was more than rich enough to afford all of his team members… Wait… Oh… OH!

Jaune's mind began racing furiously. Maybe... Just maybe… Mr. H was planning a surprise party for him! He would have Pyrrha distract him long enough for him to prepare and when he comes back, everyone will come out and try to scare him. It fit in perfectly with his trollish personality. Jaune decided to just go along with Mr. H's plan. Heck, maybe he could try and flip the tables on Mr. H himself! But for now, he will just go along with Mr. H's plan.

And boy was Mr. H buttering Jaune up for what was supposed to be a distraction: cologne, a suit, and fancy looking shoes to top it all off. Jaune was standing awkwardly while he waited for Mr. H to finish wrestling with his tie. Once preparations were all finished, he went out of the building to the bullhead landing area as he waited for Pyrrha.

"Jaune!" He looked over to return the greeting, and his heart almost fell out of his chest at the sight.

Pyrrha was looking drop dead gorgeous. She let her hair down, but she still had her crown on her head. Her red and gold dress showed a sufficient amount of cleavage, and there was a slit down the leg area that subtly showed of her legs as she walked. Jaune gulped as he stammered on what to say.

"Y-you l-look amazing." Pyrrha giggled before she returned the compliment. While Jaune and Pyrrha were flirting around, Mr. H was hiding in the bush with Ren.

"Explain to me why I am hiding in the bush with you?" Mr. H glanced down at Ren before sighing a deep breath.

"You know damn well why. First, you are responsible for this idea as well. Second, I wanted someone to talk to. Third, I wanted to talk about Nora with you. When do you plan on confessing to Nora?" Ren looked down and found a little millipede to be very interesting all of a sudden.

"I thought so. Who knows? Maybe someday you can find some way to convince Nora to see you as a man." Ren kept quiet and continued to watch Pyrrha and Ren's awkward courtship before he worked up the courage.

"Do you think it will work out?"

"Yeah. She does care for you after all. The only problem is finding a way to convince Nora to see you as a boyfriend instead of as a brother. Why? You want my help as well?"

"No. Definitely not. I've seen your definition of help." Mr. H chuckled.

"Good. It's mentally tiring trying to hook up two hormonal teenagers. However, you aren't dense like Jaune, and you don't worry too much like Pyrrha. I think you'll do fine. Besides, I'm pretty sure that even if you do get rejected, Nora will quickly get over the awkwardness REAL fast so you should be able to remain best friends at the very least." Ren paused as he considered Mr. H's words.

"Thanks. But, I don't want to rush things as you did with Jaune and Pyrrha."

"No need. Don't take this as an insult, but very few boys have the energy to handle Nora. There isn't much competition for her. Don't take too long though because she is quite the catch if you can get past her… extreme energetic state."

"I'll keep that in mind." Ren and Mr. H quieted down as a Bullhead came down to take Pyrrha and Jaune away to the dinner.

"Thanks for giving me that sake and taking me to my family's grave that day. It was a good idea talking and pouring sake on the grave."

"No need. Do you feel like you have some closure at the very least?"

"Yes. It felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It really did feel like I was drinking and talking with my dad. Managed to get everything off my chest."

"Oh, that's good. I'm happy that it works in real life as well."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing… We should probably get back before Nora starts tearing up the tower looking for you." A loud explosion came for the building.

"I think we're too late." Ren dryly commented.

"No shit Sherlock. Move it!"

While Ren and Mr. H hurried back to the building to see a food fight from frustrated students, Pyrrha and Jaune were having a dinner that would make virgins die from diabetic shock. Jaune would say something incredibly cringey and cheesy that Pyrrha would laugh at, and Pyrrha would take note of how much Jaune improved. The best part of the dinner was that there were no distractions. No teammates or friends suddenly busting in. No emergency Grimm attacks. Peace and a good time for two lovers.

With dinner finished up, they were now walking through the park. Pyrrha was holding a flower bouquet that Jaune bought (following the instructions of Mr. H), but Pyrrha was starting to grow nervous. Jaune was continuously looking from side to side as if he was expecting something. Did Lich say something unnecessary to Jaune? Was he nervous about something? Was he nervous about how he was going to reject her confession?

She quickly put a stop to her train of thought. She wasn't going to chicken out. She was going to do this. Eventually, the path came to an end that overlooked a beautiful lake with a bench near the water. Pyrrha sat down and beckoned toward Jaune who was looking through the bushes for some reason…

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Jaune wasn't even looking at Pyrrha as he continued to look around as if he was expecting someone.

"Jaune… Is something the matter?"

"No. No! Just waiting for something."

"Does it make you nervous?"

"Nope. Just wondering what I'm going to say."

"Say what?"

"To the surprise." It seems Lich did say something unnecessary.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't do to keep it under wraps anymore."

"Hah! I knew it. Come on out everyone. I knew this entire…"

"Jaune? What in the world are you saying?" Pyrrha grabbed Jaune by the arm and pushed him down to her eye level.

"Well… Weren't you guys going to throw me a surprise party? Isn't that why Mr. H was all super secretive?" Pyrrha sighed. This poor dense loveable fool. Of course, he would completely miss all the hints that this was a date of all things. Lich was absolutely right. With people like him, it was best to be just straightforward.

"No. There is a surprise, but it's not what you think. It's only the two of us here to be exact."

"Oh. So what's the surprise?"

"Before we get there… Do you remember how we first met?"

"Yeah… That was kinda embarrassing, to be honest. Everyone seemed to know who you were. Made a complete fool of myself." Pyrrha chuckled at all the shenanigans that Jaune pulled off at the beginning.

"Well… I was happy that you didn't know me."

"… Really?" Pyrrha nodded with a serious expression and told Jaune everything. How she hated the fame, how she never wanted to be a four-time champion to begin with, how alone she felt.

"You were one of the first people outside of my immediate family to treat me like a person. Not some super duper amazing contest winner to butter up to, but a girl who had feelings." Pyrrha blushed at the words that came out of her mouth while Jaune sat there looking confused.

"So you weren't looking down on me for acting like a fool."

"No. Of course not silly. Jaune… I've really enjoyed my time with you, and I want to spend more time together. And… well... I was wondering if you would be okay… Do you consider us best friends?"

"Of course! I wouldn't hesitate to entrust my life to you. You were one of the few people to know my secret, and you didn't turn your back on me. You helped me even though you could have easily used my secret as a chance to get a new partner… I have nothing but gratitude for you Pyrrha. I really don't know how to thank you." Pyrrha slowly nodded as she stared out into the lake.

"Do you… Are you alright if we can become more the best friends though?"

"More than best friends? What does… oh… Are you implying what I think you are implying?"

"I want to say yes, but I am afraid of creating another misunderstanding, so I'm just going to say this upfront." She grabbed Jaune's hands and looked him straight in the eye. "I love you. I love your quirkiness. I love the way you treat me as a person. I love your hard-working attitude. I love your stubbornness in refusing to give up. I love the way you don't hesitate to help other people. I wouldn't mind being your girlfriend."

Jaune stood there with his mouth open. This was beyond his wildest imagination. Pyrrha Nikos. Pyrrha Nikos of all people was confessing to him. Someone he never thought he stood a chance with as well as someone he had too much respect for to try to woo as he did with Weiss. What a night.

"Is this a dream or something?" Pyrrha rolled her eyes and leaned in.

"You tell me." She then kissed him. A couple of seconds later, she pulled back to look into Jaune's eyes.

"Well? I'm waiting for an answer?" Jaune looked around to make sure that nobody was around to scream 'you've been pranked' before looking back at Pyrrha. Truth be told, he too had feelings for Pyrrha, but he never dared to act on them. He was always subconsciously aware of how Weiss felt about his attempts, and he didn't have the courage to woo Pyrrha. Pyrrha was someone he didn't want to anger. He wanted to make her happy. There was no way that a loser like him could be with THE Pyrrha Nikos after all… But here he was.

"If… If you are really okay with someone like me… I will gladly date you." Pyrrha smile widened as she leaped at Jaune and hugged him tightly. However, Pyrrha leaped too forcefully causing both of them to tumble off the bench and on to the ground. The two laughed as they lay on the ground staring up at the stars.

Suddenly, a box fell out of nowhere and landed next to Pyrrha's feet. After looking around and failing to find anyone, she opened the box and pulled out a suspicious package.

"What is it?" Jaune asked leaning over Pyrrha's shoulder to get a good look at the content of the box. They both blushed widely upon realizing what it was.

"Lich. I'm going to kill that bastard!" Pyrrha was about to throw the box in the trashcan, but then she suddenly stopped.

"You interested Jaune?" He immediately began coughing as he accidentally swallowed his own spit upon hearing Pyrrha's words.

"I'm glad and all, but not now and definitely not here."

"I'm just pulling your leg. C'mon. Let's go back and get Lich back for this."

"Oh yeah. I have a couple of things in mind. Maybe we can have Nora…" And the two newly formed lovebirds walked back to the entrance of the park while a pack of condoms sat in the trash can.


	25. Chapter 25: the calm before the storm

**Hello! Back again! Oof. I have gotten some severe writer's block. It was extremely difficult trying to crank out this chapter. Jeez. And sorry for the short chapter. This is less of a chapter and more of a filler, to be honest.**

Lich was walking past the closet when he heard grunting noises from the closet. Curious, he reached his hand towards the knob until he heard a certain voice whisper Jaune's name from inside the closet while moaning. Realizing what was happening, he quickly pulled his hand back and began walking off. Fucking like rabbits indeed.

It has been a week after Pyrrha and Jaune officially became a couple. Their present for such an accomplishment? A merciless beat down the very next day from desperate classmates who wanted proper food for once. Although to be fair, JNPR would have totally been able to fight off their rivals if _someone_ didn't lace their water with laxatives. However, it was a good learning experience for everyone in how dangerous people could become when someone _really_ wanted something. Fighting fair did not exist in the real world.

As a result, a massive prank war has started as classmates desperately tried to do anything to give them a leg up in the free-for-all classes. Itching powder, knockout gas, hiding weapons, rigging the arena before the fight, **everything** was fair game. For Monty's sake, someone even took a stuffed doll as a hostage resulting in half the building blowing up as a team mounted a rescue attempt. And Lich turned a blind eye to all of it. The sooner the class knew that the bad guys never fought fair, the better it was for everyone. While Jaune decided to take the morally high route of fighting fair, even he became weary of other people and began making contingency plans for any sabotage attempts.

After a week of his crash course, everyone was starting to show improvements in tactical thinking and strategy. Naïve thinking was slowly starting to get cut away. Lich was shocked at the learning rate of the students. It really showed that this year's students were truly prodigies although the aura probably helped with the faster learning. Aura was truly a cheat skill. A shame that Lich was unable to properly utilize his aura like everyone else considering that his body was pretty dead.

As a result of everyone's fast improvements, even Lich was forced to step up his own training. Team RWBY nearly took out his plate a couple of times. That was simply unacceptable. He needed to keep up an invincible image to his students. His really didn't want any of the students to get bragging material. His pride wouldn't allow it.

Since he didn't need sleep, he spent most of the night in the training room, working on some of his fighting techniques. Currently, he was working on finer control of his four mechanical arms. He still had difficulty multi-tasking with the arms in order to bring their full potential to use. There were still many awkward moments when he realized that he completely forgot the existence of a fourth arm.

When he got to the training room, he was surprised to see that someone else was already using the room despite it being 1 am. It turned out to be Weiss who was working on utilizing the glyphs more effectively in close combat. After admiring her moves, he moved to the room next to Weiss and started up his own training program. As the robots began training their guns on Lich, he planted his feet into the ground as his arms began slithering around him. First was training in defense. Being able to block all incoming attacks from ALL directions while moving his main body as little as possible. This required extremely effective micromanagement of his arms. At the moment, he could handle up to four robots at the same time, and he was aiming for eight. When he was finally forced to move due to being unable to interrupt a massive sonic attack from one of the ranged bots, he found Weiss staring at him training from the entrance to his room. Lich smashed his arms into the floor and used them as a spring to propel himself to where Weiss was.

"Did you enjoy the show?"

Weiss looked up at his helmet and sighed deeply. "How are you so strong? Every time I think that I may have a chance at defeating you, I just need to look at how you train or fight even once for that feeling to just disappear."

"Hey. Don't be discouraged. You are plenty strong in your own way you know."

"Like what?"

"Your semblance is nothing to scoff at."

"You smash through them like they are paper and you can keep up with the acceleration glyphs as well."

"Weiss. You have to remember that I am an oddity. You will be hard pressed to find someone else as strong as me. Besides, I lost too much to be this strong. Never really wanted to be this strong in the first place you know? Besides, even you got close to shattering my plate once. Keep training. You'll find a way to beat me one day."

"One day… When will that be? I bet Winter could get a lot closer to defeating you than me…"

Mr. H sighed as he remembered that Weiss had a small inferiority complex to her older sister. From what he learned from his investigations, Winter was an impressive individual since she was top of her class and most trusted assistant of General Ironwood. As well as a persistent bitch but now was not the time to say that.

"Winter is Winter. Weiss is Weiss. Don't put too much emphasis on the comparison. Heck, once you graduate, you're going to be even stronger than Winter."

Weiss snorted, clearly not believing Mr. H. "Oh yeah? What makes you so confident?"

"You have me as a teacher." Weiss was stunned by the unexpected answer. Mr. H decided to continue on with this line of reasoning.

"I've trained Pyrrha who is now four time champion. I'm even helping Pyrrha train Jaune personally. You've seen how much he has grown over such a short period of time. Granted his aura reserves gives him a huge advantage, but even then, his rate of improvement is quite fast. I can say with some confidence that I have a good track record so far."

"So… What are you hinting at here?" Mr. H nodded to Weiss's question and walked over to the control panel and turned the training settings to dueling mode.

"Well, if you aren't sleepy, how about I give you a couple of tips?" Weiss smiled and did a small nod.

"I would be grateful."

"Let's begin."

It was well into the night with the sun starting to peak up from the horizon. Weiss finally collapsed from the exhaustion and laid on her back staring at the ceiling. Chuckling, Mr. H sat down next to her and threw her a granola bar.

"Don't tell anyone that I gave you a granola bar." Weiss merely grunted as she threw off the wrappings and wolfed down her breakfast. She groaned with pleasure as the taste of real food spread in her mouth. Even she was starting to get sick of the gruel. Surprisingly, it was edible, but the after taste was horrible.

As Weiss savored real food for once, Mr. H took out a rag from his armored boots and began cleaning out his mechanical arms. Weiss watched him for a few minutes before she began speaking.

"Who was your teacher?" Mr. H stopped moving when Weiss asked her question.

"What do you mean?"

"Who taught you? Winter and I had some of the best private tutors. Ruby and Yang had their family. Everyone had someone in their lives teach them how to fight. You taught Pyrrha. What about you? That person must have been one hell of a teacher."

Mr. H sighed as he rubbed his helmet, contemplating how he should answer. "I am self-taught."

Weiss blinked and then began laughing hysterically. She continued laughing until she noticed the lack of humor from Mr. H. "You're serious? Then what was the whole point of that teacher talk?!"

"I know. I know. I am a hypocrite. No one taught me how to fight. Yes. Some people gave me pointers here and there, but it was mainly me."

"Then, what about your family? Were they soldiers or something similar?"

"No. They were everyday civilians. I was also an everyday civilian."

"Really? That's kind of hard to imagine…"

"I wasn't always like this you know. I had a home. I had a family. I had my _sanity_. I had many things. Things I do not have ever since I woke up in a ruin in the middle of nowhere without being able to freaking-" Mr. H stopped.

"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to ramble. I am an insane, very sick man. I question if I am a man at times. I fight with no consideration for my own life because I can't… really die. You would do well to remember that."

"What do you mean you can't die?"

"That is my secret. I'm not opening all my secrets to you. I'm only sharing some of my background because I sort of feel bad for not respecting your privacy when I dug up everything about your background when Pyrrha was getting all chummy-chummy with team RWBY." Weiss almost clicked her tongue at her failure to get more information. She quickly began rerunning the conversation to remember key aspects of it for later analysis. Mr. H was one of the most mysterious individuals in the business world and the darker side of business. As the heiress to the Schnee Dust company, this was all valuable information.

Yet… Weiss couldn't help but be hurt at the lack of trust that Mr. H still had despite the time spent together. She thought they were closer in a way. "Should I be creeped out that you dug up sensitive information about me?"

"Nope. Instead, digging up sensitive information should be a good habit to get into. As well as setting up countermeasures against possible ways people can use information against you. Knowledge is power after all. Also, unless you mean to do Pyrrha harm, you shouldn't worry too much from me. However, your background check is pretty clean minus a couple of family issues." Mr. H leans in close to stare into Weiss's eyes to emphasize his point. Weiss stared back into the abyss of Mr. H's eye slits on the helmet.

Weiss frowned at the paranoia that Mr. H was showing. "Are you by any chance a failed test subject from Atlas?"

"No. I am cursed with something far worse and… _ancient._ " The light suddenly dimmed, and Weiss could swear that she saw the shadows start to slowly grow. Weiss decided that continuing this line of conversation was very unwise.

"*cough* Let's talk about something else. So, I noticed that Jaune and Pyrrha are finally a couple now. Did you have a hand in that?" Mr. H merely shrugged.

"Of course. Who do you think I am?"

"A sadistic asshole."

He didn't even hesitate to answer. "Yup. But I do have a history with Pyrrha, and I won't toy around with her heart."

"But you're okay with everyone else. Like Jaune's heart when we did the whole fake dating fiasco?"

"That was to help Pyrrha. Pyrrha holds top priority."

"Pyrrha this and Pyrrha that. Do you not have a life outside of Pyrrha? What is your history with her anyway?" Mr. H tilted his helmet, and Weiss could swear that he was glaring at her even though she couldn't see his eyes. Eventually, he calmed down by taking a deep breath.

"She saved me in more ways than one. She's my anchor. I owe her a debt, and I plan on repaying it properly. However, you are right. I do need to give her some distance. Still learning how much distance I should give though."

"How vague can you get?"

"Do you want to go into detail about your family's issues?" Weiss closed her mouth. He had a point. Mr. H noticed Weiss's pained expression.

"Sorry. I think I went too far there. I still need to remind myself that my situation is worse than the norm." Mr. H chuckled with a depressed tone before he stood up and stretched. "Let's go back. If you want to keep training with me, I usually come to the training grounds at 10 pm. It's late, but I think you are used to sleeping late."

"I'll be sure to drink lots of coffee." Mr. H nodded and waved. Weiss watched him leave before she too stood up to go to her dorm for a power nap. Classes didn't start until 4 hours later. However, as Weiss began analyzing their conversation, certain parts worried her.

Can't die? Ancient? Was there any relationship between Mr. H and a top-secret discovery in one of the old ruins in Atlas? From what the researchers deciphered from the ancient drawings, it depicted something about a failed ritual. A corrupted form of eternal life by trying to transfer a human soul into an empty shell. A method of gaining immortality. Of course, this immediately caught the attention of her father who immediately hushed up everyone and 'silenced' anyone who ran their mouths.

From what could be deciphered, one god refused to allow one of his _own_ creations to make a bastardization of the cycle of life and death and did something to the ritual _._ They could never figure out the last part, but the common theory was banishment. Now there were two problems. Banished to where? The second problem was that researchers managed to decode part of the drawing and the sheer amount of energy necessary for the ritual was enough to blast a hole in the fabric of time and space. From what could be seen the ritual was interrupted, not prevented, by god. Where did all that energy go?

Weiss shook her head. She was delving far too deep into this. It was probably something far more simple. As she walked down the hallway, an awful smell started to assault Weiss's nose. She really needed a shower.

Later in the day, during the free-for-all training, Mr. H had Ozpin come over in secret and substitute for him. In order for nobody to find out, he had Ozpin wear a similar suit of armor that was lighter and informed the students that he would be differing his styles of combat. In order to complete the deception, Mr. H changed up his wardrobe and wore a complete suit with big sunglasses to hide his unnatural eyes. Before the class began, Ozpin pulled Mr. H to the side and whispered, "Top left drawer of your office."

Mr. H nodded and made sure the paperwork was in order. Things were looking up.

Explosions rocked the entire forest. During the confusion, Lich slipped away into the forest. There was a reason he had Ozpin come over. It was cover for him. Since Ozpin came over in secret, certain people may be thinking that Mr. H was in class fighting the students. He needed that in order for this secret meeting to take place.

He entered a small burrow under a tree to unearth a small two-way radio. A VERY old precursor to the scroll that everybody uses. Roman did have a habit of collecting old antiques, and nobody would consider trying to tap into an old radio wave system that nobody used.

"(-.-. - - . / .. -. .-.-.- / - ... .. ... / .. ... / .-.. .. -.-. ...)" Lich then waited for a reply. He didn't have to wait long before he heard the voice of a very familiar man.

"Clear. Clear. Clear. Lich. Is that really you?" Roman's quiet voice echoed back from the radio. "I can't believe you sent that bitch on a wild goose chase in order to buy some time to talk to me."

"*snort* As soon as I figured out that she wanted to use the Faunus, your boss gave me weaknesses to exploit."

"Ever the evil genius. Sorry I couldn't initiate contact. Too risky."

"Yeah, I figured. The fact that you didn't even try to contact me showed just how paranoid you were. Which also meant I couldn't underestimate her if she pushed you this far. I'm also guessing that she has spies in the school right?"

"Not that I know of. At least not yet. However, paranoia is always good to keep by your side."

"Yeah. That's why I went through all sorts of hoops and loops to throw off any possible spies. Your side is clear, right?"

"All clear. She doesn't bother trying to spy on me when I am with my antiques.

"Oh good. Did I manage to get you on your alone time with your hobby, right? She's not there, is she?"

"No. In fact, she doesn't even know that any of these machines even work. It's one of the reasons why I'm even risking my ass trying to speak with you. This is probably the only time Cinder lowers her guard around me."

"Is that the name of the chick threatening your ass? What the hell happened Torchy?"

"Torchy..." Roman Torchwick rolled the name off his tongue in nostalgia. "It's been a while since anyone called me that name. I miss my girls sometimes. Had to sell my entire empire just to keep a murderous psychopath happy."

"Why haven't you killed her yet? Is she that strong?"

"Lich. She could even give you a run for your money." Lich snorted in disbelief. "I'm serious Lich. She can use _magic."_

Lich froze, and his mandibles snapped shut. He felt a molar crack from the sudden impact. " _Magic, you say? Torchy. Magic is a bunch of fairy tales. Are you sure it wasn't some sort of semblance?"_ Lich began pushing Torchwick for further details.

"Damn it Lich! I know a semblance when I see it. I have an aura too! No, what she has is something far older and powerful. She took out ALL of my elite guards." Lich sucked in a deep breath.

"ALL of them? Those guards were the best of the best. Each of them is capable of soloing an A-rank Grimm with ease."

"Yeah. Well, Cinder managed to solo my damn guards." Lich let the information slowly sink in.

"Okay. We'll get back to this Cinder later. What is her plan?"

"You know what I want before I answer that question."

"Ozpin managed to get you a full pardon as well as entrance into a witness protection program. Not just any witness protection program, but one that is run by the school with only the headmaster having access to the information. Plastic surgery will also be offered."

"Excellent. Money?"

"Enough for you to restart your business somewhere else."

"Alright. I like dealing with you, you know? You cut through all the bullshit and seem to know exactly what the opposition knows. It's uncanny at times. It's as if you can see the other person's soul." Lich snorted at how close Roman came to the truth.

"Now tell me everything. First question, why does Cinder need that much dust?" Roman immediately answered each question, and Lich wrote down everything. The more Roman answered the more Lich became worried.

"Okay. Let me sum this up. She wants to blow a hole into the wall of Vale during the festival by using the abandoned railway tracks from Mt. Glenn."

"Yes. That sums it up." Lich rubbed his plastic cheeks in irritation. Sadly, he rubbed too hard, causing a small tear. "Shit!"

"Everything alright there?"

"Yeah. Just the situation is pretty damn bad. If I'm going to Mt. Glenn and blow up all that dust, I'm going to need a pretty good strike force. It's going to take ages before Ozpin and I can get all those resources without alerting the enemy." Lich quickly began running through the options. The only way any sort of strike force was to succeed was if he took part in the attack as well. He also had some questions for this Cinder bitch.

"Tell me more about this Cinder."

"Her main ability is manipulation of fire. However, she can also…" Suddenly, pounding could be heard. The last thing Lich heard was Roman cursing and shutting off the radio.

Lich sighed as he leaned back and began reading his notes. Things weren't looking too good. He had no idea why this Cinder bitch wanted to cause such mayhem, but from what he could guess, she was under the orders of someone else. The name Salem came up again.

Lich shook his head. Currently, wondering about Cinder's motives were fruitless. There wasn't enough time. He needed to get to Ozpin and hash out this plan as soon as possible. The only problem was that he really didn't want to leave Pyrrha behind. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't leave himself behind. Someone needed to counter Cinder, and he was pretty sure that he was the only one who could reliably take her down. Roman was convinced that Cinder could use magic, and he wasn't a fool. He was going to take his warning seriously.

Lich clenched his hands into a fist. If this Cinder came from the same hell as him… Cinder must die as fast as possible. Lich took out his pocket watch. It was time to go back and brew some coffee. Ozpin was going to need it.

When Mr. H came back, Ozpin was in his office laying face down in the floor groaning. His armor had some notable dents on it though. If Mr. H had control of his eyebrows, they would be raised in surprise.

"How the hell did first years even manage to touch you?"

"How the hell have you been training them? It's only been about a month, and already they fight like suicidal maniacs. One of the Faunus literally pulled a grenade when he was right next to me. He didn't even care if his teammates got caught in the blast."

"Wow. He really went Allah-Akbar."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Mr. H. We are trying to create proper huntsmen. Not fanatics with only sights for victory. I have half a mind to shut down this program of yours."

"Do it. We don't have time. I managed to get in touch with Torchwick. The information I have isn't pretty."

Ozpin's eyes immediately narrowed. "Tell me everything."

Mr. H had never seen Ozpin smoke before. So he was surprised when Ozpin slowly pulled out a cigar and lit it in the office. As he continued relaying everything he knew including some of his concerns and interpretations, Ozpin's face seemed to grow older by the second. His face seemed to even become more wrinkly.

"So, I recommend that we use the preparations for the Vale festival as a way to recruit as many undercover huntsmen as possible and send a strike force to deal with the threat. Then, with the threat destroyed, we can enjoy the festival, and everyone will be happy. I also volunteer myself to be in the task force." Ozpin didn't seem to listen as he took another deep breath of the cigar, a faraway look in his eyes.

It was another moment before Ozpin spoke. "Do you have that _Total War_ game right now?"

"Yes, Why?"

"Let's play a game. You can be Atlas. I'll be Vale."

"Ozpin. This is serious."

"I know. That's why I want to think while playing this game. It's like listening to music while you work. I think you know what I mean." Mr. H didn't respond as he took out his scroll and sent a challenge to Ozpin. He accepted, and both men began organizing their army and placing troops.

The game started. Since Atlas had the better spies (actually Atlas was superior in everything military related), Mr. H began squeezing every drop of information from Ozpin's digital cities. He made sure that Ozpin would never be able to catch his spies by continuously putting up bait and switch tactics. While he had Ozpin running around frantically trying to deal with the spies, he had terrorists cause numerous accidents that caused public order to fall. In addition, he made allies with the two other countries behind Ozpin's back. It ended with Ozpin's back against the wall while a massive army was approaching him from all directions.

It was then that Ozpin looked up at Mr. H and solemnly asked, "If you were in my shoes, what should I do?"

Mr. H snorted. "If I were you, I would never have gotten myself into that position in the first place. There were so many chances for counterplay, but you fell for every one of my baits."

"Most of the necessary 'counter' plays required me to sacrifice an entire city." Ozpin bitterly retorted.

"You didn't have the balls Ozpin. Sometimes the few have to be sacrificed for the many. That is the hard truth sometimes. Morals are good, but if they are fixed in stone… Well, stone has a tendency to be eroded."

"Well. Hindsight is 20/20. You haven't properly answered my question Mr. H. What now?" Mr. H was silent as he watched his digital army pillage Ozpin's once-prized capital to the ground. Graphics of rape and plunder filled the screen. It was a while before Mr. H spoke.

"In this situation, I would go down fighting. You still have that bomb, don't you?" Ozpin frowned.

"You are telling me to blow up my own capital? Kill my own people?"

"You don't have much of a capital left to be honest." Ozpin once more stared at the screen before he sighed in regret. He pressed the button, and an eruption of fire and molten rock filled the screen. Soon only a massive crater was left. A 'pyrrhic victory' screen came up for Mr. H while Ozpin had a 'you lose' screen appears.

An unsettling silence came over the two men as they stared at their respective screen. After a while, Ozpin chuckled. "Perhaps it is time that I sacrifice some of my morals and go on the offensive. Mr. H. The situation deteriorated three days ago. We've lost contact with Qrow."

Mr. H leaned forward in disbelief. "Say what now?"

"We've lost contact with Qrow. This has me greatly worried."

"No shit, Sherlock! Qrow is a pretty good Huntsman. Not the best, but he is up in the top fifteen."

"I know. Which is why I have a request. I need you to use your connections with the mafia. Because of my morals, I have not involved myself too deeply in the darker side of the law. That and I had nobody who had deep connections with it. It seems that I will have to change that, and I have someone like you to help me change that. I need you to prepare meetings with every significant mafia and syndicate group you have connections with. I need to make some… deals with them."

"What type of deals?"

"Outside of your pay range Mr. H. However, it will not impact the school."

"My payment for this request of yours?"

"Your sentence is reduced by half."

"Good enough." They shook on the deal. Ozpin was about to leave before Mr. H said a final sentence. "Be sure to put that in writing."

A wave merely answered back. Lich sighed as he walked over to the liquor cabinet and picked up one of his finest whiskey and poured himself a cup. He then set it in front of him at the desk and just stared at the alcohol. Soft sad music started up as Lich leaned back into his chair unable to enjoy the finer things in life.


	26. Chapter 26

**Hello! Another update! Again, more of a filler. Trying to move the plot along. Another warning about the interlude. It is really dark. Don't read it if you are queasy about dark subjects. It is probably the darkest of all the interludes. You've been warned.**

 _Some sort of weird contraption was beginning to transfer a massive amount of energy into_ _a beating heart. Ruby knew that she had to stop the machine before it was too late. She didn't know why, but she just had to. However, some sort of a being was stopping her. It wasn't human. It was wreathed in darkness, and waves of pain and silent fury rolled off it. Ruby herself felt some sort of accepted sadness at having to fight this thing._

 _However, she needed to destroy that contraption. It was imperative. Yang, Blake, and Weiss was next to her ready to do what must be done._ _With a shake of their heads, the four quickly communicated a plan. Yang and Blake charged at the figure. Yang tried to punch the figure only for her to get countered with a massive swipe of some dark power, a trail of blood following after her. Ruby screamed Yang's name. She could only watch in horror as the broken form of her sister flew through the air. It was most definitely a fatal hit._

 _However, Blake was able to get behind the figure and got a rope on the figure's neck and attempted to pull down the figure to no effect. Ruby tried to yell at Blake to get away. Damn the mission. Her friends were dying. But her body wouldn't move to her will. She was forced to watch as Blake was quickly countered by a massive electric current that ran down the rope and into her body. Blake's lifeless body collapsed into the ground._

 _However, it was the distraction needed for Weiss to freeze the figure, and for Ruby to dash past the figure with a clear path to the heart. The figure managed to melt the ice and burn Weiss alive. It then tried to stop Ruby with a massive wave of darkness. The scythe got closer and closer to the heart, but then Ruby realized something. She couldn't feel her legs. She looked down with horror to see that she got bisected._

Ruby snapped awake. Her PJs were drenched with sweat as she tried to regain control of her breathing. She threw off the covers to make sure her lower half was still attached. The dream felt so… real. She looked around and sighed in relief at seeing her team. It was simply a dream.

Ruby groaned in annoyance. Of course, she has some sort of nightmare just before Mr. H's final exam for the summer class. She grumbled under her breath as she tried to go back to sleep. It wouldn't do for her to be sleep deprived.

A mechanical arm came at full speed aimed at Ruby's head. Ruby quickly ducked as she desperately tried to gain some distance. Out of everyone in their group, it was only Ruby with the weapon that could truly harm Mr. H.

In the past, it was infuriating for Ruby to see all of her shots fail to pierce Mr. H's armor so she decided to upgrade her gun from an anti-personnel sniper rifle to an anti-material rifle. The only reason why Ruby never switched previously was that an anti-material rifle was banned from use in urban areas except in times of emergency Grimm hordes. In addition, the use of such weapons against other humans was not illegal but highly frowned upon. However, Ruby quickly learned that Mr. H wasn't a normal human, and she held little reservation using such a powerful weapon against their teacher. Was an anti-material rifle overkill? Yes, it was. However as Ruby soon learned in Mr. H's tutelage, there was no such thing as overkill in the field. Far better to overestimate opponents than to underestimate them.

Of course, the higher power of the gun came at a price of much higher dust usage and longer reload. However, it also meant that she could now somewhat pierce his ridiculous armor. Judging from the lack of blood, it seemed that the armor bled enough of the bullet's momentum causing it to fail to pierce the aura field. However, this resulted in Ruby becoming a primary target for Mr. H as he prevented her from using the gun properly. On the other hand, her team was focused on distracting Mr. H long enough for Ruby to get a clear shot.

Blake was running circles around Mr. H trying to tie down his mechanical arms with her ribbon. Sadly, Mr. H was very aware of what she was doing so he made sure to keep enough distance between his four arms to prevent such an occurrence, but this was well within Team RWBY's expectations. In fact, this was what allowed Yang to get in close and start brawling with Mr. H. Due to all of his mechanical arms being pre-occupied with Blake and Ruby, Mr. H was forced to use his real arms and legs to fight off Yang's assault.

Despite the trio's ingenious and excellent teamwork, they were still quite inferior to Mr. H himself. Despite Yang being in her prime element of brawling, she was still forced to give ground as each of her punches was brutally countered with shockwave inducing counter kicks and punches from Mr. H himself.

 _What a fucking monster!_ Yang barely managed to sidestep a kick to her thighs when Mr. H managed to grab her arm during an uppercut and pulled her closer. Despite the attack missing, she could still feel the power of the kick as the kick's shockwave passed through her leg. Even though it was a miss, Yang's aura was still taking damage from a _kick's_ shockwave. Yang let out a silent scream as she desperately tried to dodge the incoming barrage of punches. However, an acceleration glyph that appeared underneath Yang gave her the agility necessary to dodge every single one. Blocking wasn't an option after all, and even though her role was that of a 'tank', she really didn't feel 'tank-y' against Mr. H. Her semblance was slowly giving Yang more power, it didn't really matter if she couldn't land a hit or couldn't get an opening to throw a punch in. _My team better be happy for me taking the hardest role here._

 _He really lives up to his reputation…_ Blake was desperately trying to avoid the arms' secondary weapon system to them such as a flame thrower, a laser, and a Monty-damned _autocannon_. Where he manages to fit in the ammunition is anybody's guess, but one hit even a glancing hit was a crippling blow to their aura. She was still worried about the fourth arm. It hasn't even used its secondary weapon yet.

Every time she manages to wrap her ribbon around one of the arms, the other arms begin a counter-attack on her flank. Just when she tangled up the arm belching a damn _magnesium_ fire blast, she was forced to release the arm as she changed her Gambol shroud into sword form in order to block shots from the autocannon. She winced as her aura took hits from the shrapnel. While she was blocking shots with her sword, the flame arm went up behind her and tried to bath her in flames. An ice glyph appeared just in time to counter most of the flames in order to allow Blake to dodge and roll in a desperate attempt to put out the fire on the tips of her hair. She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of exasperation at the amount of money she would have to spend to fix the damage. _My team better be happy for me taking the hardest role here._

Ruby silently screamed as a red laser shot right at where her head used to be. _Oh, my Monty! Oh, my Monty!_ She was forced to do an ungraceful fall on her face in order to dodge a follow-up swipe from a spinning sawblade. The sawblade would have hit Ruby if it didn't glance off a shield glyph.

This was one of the times her inexperience compared to her fellow teammates showed. Because she left Signal Academy early, she was a bit lacking in combat training, especially regarding fighting against opponents who could _keep up with her semblance_. Although the arms couldn't move at the same speed as her, Mr. H's eye and mind still could so he was using his arms to corral Ruby into areas where he could attack with an arm that was waiting for Ruby to enter its range. _It's going to be fine they said. We'll keep him busy they said._ Ever since she fired off one shot, Ruby was simply unable to get another shot off. The two arms were keeping her too busy. Yet, she NEEDED to get those shots off if they were going to have any chance of succeeding since she was the ONLY one who could get through that armor. No pressure. _My team better be happy for me taking the hardest role here._

 _Monty-damn this unfair bastard._ Weiss was biting her lips as she moved around the arena trying to think of a way to get past Mr. H's defense as well as throwing an occasional glyph to keep her teammates in the fight. Thanks to Mr. H's additional training, she finally managed to make her glyphs survive up to three hits before shattering from the mechanical arms by forming her glyph's interior similar to a diamond's carbon configuration. Weiss was still unable to make her glyphs survive a single punch from Mr. H's real arms though. If Weiss could get close enough, she could use her rapier to get into the joints of Mr. H's armor and freeze it, locking the joint in place, but Mr. H was not going to let Weiss get close enough to do that. As a result, their team made a plan to use Ruby to shoot Mr. H's back that controlled his mechanical arms. In one of their former spars, they could only imagine the look on his face when Ruby managed to actually pierce his armor and damage his back which was where the control system for the mechanical arms was. Sadly, team RWBY was unable to take advantage of that moment because even they weren't expecting such an effect. Mr. H quickly recovered by detaching his mechanical arms and charging full speed at Ruby taking her down with a single punch. The former fight ended up with another victory to Mr. H. Team RWBY was unable to pull off another similar feat since they lost the element of surprise.

Weiss widened her eyes as she quickly put up three glyphs at the same time to cover teammates. She almost didn't make it in time. Weiss let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't easy covering for ALL THREE of her teammates as well as being in charge of looking for any holes in his defense. _My team better be happy for me taking the hardest role here._

At first, Mr. H wasn't really expecting actually finish his class. He expected Ozpin to shut it down and give him some sort of mission. However, Ozpin was adamant that Mr. H properly finish his course stating that it is imperative that everyone gets as much training for the dark times ahead. So Ozpin gave his reluctant approval of Mr. H's training methods. So Mr. H happily continued his course and waited in anticipation to see how much his pupils improved.

Mr. H was impressed. Team RWBY was actually making him work for his victory. Yang to keep him occupied in close range. Blake was trying to take care of his mechanical arms. Ruby was an actual threat to him. Weiss was being a pain in the ass with those glyphs. Excellent timing and teamwork. Every time he tried to focus more of his arms on Ruby, Blake would pop in to ruin such attempts. Yang was preventing him from getting closer to Weiss who was doing a good job staying out of range, but close enough to provide support wherever is needed.

Mr. H quickly understood team RWBY's objective. Ever since Ruby failed to try to shoot his control system for the arms, they switched to a battle of attrition. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a threat to Mr. H, but he realized that they were trying to win through bleeding away the time. If all four of them survived after an hour, by the rules, the team with the most members still with aura would win. There were only ten minutes left.

As a result, Mr. H had no choice but to use his fourth arm's secondary weapon. His fourth arm could also function as a massive tesla weapon. Anybody with conductive material anywhere near him was going to get hit. He had his fourth arm break away from Ruby with no warning, set it straight up into the sky, and activated it. All of team RWBY got caught by surprise as electricity zapped through the air and into their weapons. Ruby was sent flying a couple of meters stunned from the blast. Yang was able to endure the hit while the other two dodged to Mr. H's surprise.

However, this gave Mr. H the opening he needed. Yang was still sluggish from the shock so it was easy sending a massive uppercut into Yang's chin knocking her out. With Ruby still down from the hit, Blake ended up getting the unenviable attention of all four of his mechanical arms. Blake may have been able to dodge all four arms at the start of the fight, but even she was tired from moving for so long. Soon one of his arms was able to grab Blake's foot, and he promptly threw her at Weiss, knocking both of them over.

He immediately ran over to both of them who were trying to untangle their limbs, but it was too late. They both looked up at him with wide eyes before he aimed his laser at them with enough power to take out their aura.

At this time, Ruby managed to slowly regain consciousness. She looked up to see her teammates on the ground with no sign of getting back up. In fact, two of her teammates had smoke coming off their bodies. Ruby looked up with pleading eyes at Mr. H.

"May I surrender?"

"Nope." The last thing Ruby remembered was Mr. H kicking her until her aura broke, and her consciousness faded away.

Ruby then woke up to a very familiar ceiling. The infirmary. She looked up to see all of her summer class in their beds. Some groaning, others reading a book or looking at their scrolls, many putting ice on their wounds. It made sense. Their final exam was each team sparring with Mr. H. Nobody was getting out of a trip to the infirmary.

Suddenly, the door to their room opened with a loud bam. Mr. H came strolling in as if he didn't send the entire class to the infirmary.

"Listen up! Here are the results of your final exam. First place team RWBY." Nobody was surprised. Team RWBY was the team with the most experience fighting Mr. H. Ruby stopped paying attention to the rest of the list. While others would be happy to be in the first place, Ruby was too busy brooding. Her team literally spent the entire month fighting Mr. H yet even to the very end, they were unable to even scratch him. It was infuriating.

And that was what she did for the rest of the day. Sulked. Her team noticed Ruby's mood, but they tried to talk to her to no avail. They ended up deciding to give her some space for now. They had to pack for the ride home. Their class or their hell was finally finished. An entire month and a half of brutal training. Everyone was looking forward to spending the rest of their summer vacation relaxing and trying to forget all the trauma they experienced.

So Ruby continued to sulk all the way until the Bullhead ride in the very back when Mr. H sat right next to her. "This seat isn't taken, right?"

Ruby merely shook her head. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a little bit before Mr. H broke it by saying, "I have something for you."

"Yeah?" Ruby was then handed a card. When she opened it, it suddenly exploded with glitter flying all over her face. It then continued to blare out this annoying repetitive music with the words 'CONGRATULATIONS FOR ACHIEVING OVER 500% IMPROVEMENT DURING THE SUMMER!"

Ruby was dumbstruck as she tried to process what was happening. Mr. H decided to clarify for her. "You know when you first started, team RWBY barely lasted 7 minutes against me. By the end of the summer class, you managed to survive for 55 minutes. An impressive feat. No one other than your team was able to last more than 40 minutes against me. Hell, you were the only team to even get past my armor. You should be proud not sulking."

"I know that… It's just… frustrating that you could handle us so easily…"

Mr. H cocked his head not understanding. "You managed to force me to use my fourth arm. Nobody else managed that as well. You're aiming too high."

"That's the point! I… had a nightmare. We were against something really strong. We all died, and it got me really worried. Fighting you have made me realize at how many strong people are out there. The fact that I have to face them one day…" Ruby was interrupted when Mr. H suddenly put his hand on top of Ruby's head and ruffled her hair.

"Hey! I'm being serious here!"

"I know that. Look. Listen, Ruby. You are worrying too much. First, you still have a long way to go before you even graduate. During that time, your professors and I will pound and train you into huntresses that will give even me a run for my money. If you're worried about strength, don't be. You WILL be strong enough. You will have me to help you along the way. You do know how strong I am, right?" Ruby nodded.

"Yeah. I doubt any of my teachers from Signal academy could beat you. Heck, I would be really worried for Uncle Qrow if he fought you as well."

"And do you know anyone else as strong as me."

"Maybe Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch could… But no one else…"

Mr. H nodded. "That already tells you how rare it will be for you to fight against someone as strong as me. People like me are extremely rare. The odds are 1 in a million that you will have to fight an opponent as strong as me. If you do meet someone as strong as me, you will have additional training on how to deal with opponents on my level in… 3rd year? I'll also tell you a little secret. I've fought and sparred against many professional Huntsman, and very few were able to even get me to use my 4th arm. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that your team is extremely resilient and strong. By the time you graduate and you meet an opponent like me… Well… Even I wouldn't want to fight you guys by then."

"Do you really mean what you said?"

"Absolutely. Your nightmare will simply be a nightmare. As long as you don't put your guard down and stay true to your training, I have full confidence that that nightmare will never come to reality. Besides, do you actually see Yang dying? I don't. She is far too stubborn to die." Ruby and Mr. H chuckled.

"Thanks. I really needed that."

"No problem. I'm always happy to help."

Ruby and Mr. H once more sat in awkward silence. "You do know that everyone is planning on pranking you for forcing us through your hellish training right?"

"Oh yes. But I don't really care. As if you guys could properly prank me?"

"Is that a challenge?" Ruby smirked at Mr. H.

"Fine. But I won't be afraid to retaliate."

"That's to be expected. We did train under you for most of the summer, and we know what your personality is like anyway."

"What is my personality?"

"A sadistic meanie."

"Huh. I guess that's my rep now. Weiss told me something similar. But call me a sadistic meanie in public, and I will start calling you crater face."

Ruby groaned. "I thought everybody was over that by now."

"Oh hell no. I will make sure you never live that down." Ruby glared at Mr. H, but she couldn't maintain her glare before she ended up smiling.

"I'm really glad I met you, you know? You never looked down on me for my age, and I've always noticed how you're in the background helping everybody out. You've helped me with Weiss through your little talk. I've noticed that Jaune's gotten much more confident ever since you did something. You always have time to talk and help all of us out. Thank you for everything. Really." Mr. H was silent as he contemplated her words.

"So… Are you gonna confess or something?"

"Oh, my MONTY! Can you stop ruining these moments!"

"It's me. What did you expect?" Ruby smiled and admitted defeat. Mr. H wasn't Mr. H without his perks after all.

Once the bullhead landed, everybody started saying their goodbyes. Some went off to the dorms to spend their summers at school while others went off to get a bullhead transfer to go home. Team RWBY was one of the few teams who weren't splitting up for the remainder of the summer. Blake and Weiss were going to stay at the dorms, but Yang and Ruby were able to rope them into coming to Patch with them.

Mr. H said his goodbyes and began walking off to his own home. He did his ritual saying of 'I'm home' despite the house being empty. He took off his shoes and peeled off his armor to reveal his skeletal structure. He turned on the news to catch up on current news as he wiped his bones with baby wipes. It was one of those days he was too lazy to take a shower.

He took out a stack of reports that was hidden under the sofa and started reading them. Due to the summer class, he was behind on many of the updates his undead scouts provided. He scratched his mandible when he got to the Faunus section of the pile. It seems the White Fang was gearing up for something. Cells from all over the world we're moving to Vale. The time was ripe for some aggressive information gathering. He gave a couple of calls to his mafia contacts to prep up some sedatives and his 'incentives' for cooperation.

All the way out in Patch, Yang was sparring with her father who grunted in surprise at how much his daughter improved. She was better than him when he was in 2nd year of Beacon.

"You got strong real fast. Better than I was at your age." Tai blocked a right hook from Yang and barely dodged a follow-up kick.

"Ahh. Thanks, Dad!" Yang continued to press her advantage with a flurry of punches aimed at her father's shoulders. Tai quickly realized her plan of going for the pressure points and countered appropriately by using his kicks more to gain more distance.

"Where did you learn about those pressure points?" Yang winced as she remembered how Mr. H used similar techniques against her and how she spent the rest of the day and some groaning in pain.

"Someone used them against me. I decided to copy the techniques and mold them into my style." Tai merely nodded as he once more charged at Yang. He decided to up the level a bit and started using one of his favorite combos. Yang always had difficulty dealing with it because of her tendency to brute force her way through the attack using her semblance and quickly tire herself out. To his pleasant surprise, Yang actually took a more passive-aggressive approach and focused more on conserving her strength by minimalizing her counters to simple punches until Tai was forced to disengage.

"You actually managed to control your semblance better!" Yang snorted and flipped her hair.

"I had to or else that bastard was going to continue to pummel me into the ground. I had enough of his gloating to last an entire lifetime." Tai narrowed his eyes.

"Is someone bullying my daughter?"

"No Dad. Just some sparring and some tips from a student-teacher. He's really good and helpful."

"Yeah. I heard about this student teacher. Bit of an oddball wearing plate armor in this day and age huh?"

"You shouldn't underestimate him, Dad. He could probably take us both on and win without breaking a sweat."

"I never thought I'll hear you of all people admit defeat."

" _HE_ will never hear it from me, but he is a LOT stronger than me." Tai nodded in thought as he took a sip from his water bottle. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Ruby with the rest of team RWBY approaching with bags of groceries.

"We got everything for the camping trip, Yang!" Yang turned around and waved back.

"You're late! We finished our shopping an hour before you guys. I hope you're not planning on waking up late tomorrow as well! We're leaving at dawn for the mountains!" Ruby scratched the back of her neck laughing guiltily. Weiss answered Yang's implied question.

"Ruby got into trouble with one of the stores when she knocked over al the crates." Tai nodded in understanding. His daughter was a klutz at times. It fitted.

"Well, why don't you go change and take a shower. I don't think your friends would want to eat dinner next to someone who reeks of sweat."

"Alright, Dad." Yang playfully punched Tai and ran off to join her friends.

Yang's personality and image hurt him in many ways yet filled him with pride at the same time. Yang was the spitting image of her mom in many ways. His eyes narrowed in suspicion when he thought about a previous conversation. Mr. H was an interesting character. Raven wasn't someone you could simply meet. He was going to have to do some research on this guy.

Yang yawned as she went downstairs in order to have a drink of water. She was mildly surprised to see the kitchen lights that were still on despite being late at night. Most likely it was her father who stayed up late grading papers or planning new education plans. As she walked by Tai who was drooling on the kitchen table, she took a glance at his scroll. She immediately stopped and took a better look.

It was a police report with a shaky picture of someone in armor. She slowly took away her dad's scroll and began reading the police report. It had to do with the successful assassination of a famous police chief who advocated for a harder stance on organized crime. The name Death Knight continue to pop up as the primary suspect. That was what the Atlas newspapers called this mysterious criminal, and the name stuck. Of course, the newspapers suddenly stopped reporting about the criminal when a couple of journalists went missing for a couple of days and came back mentally scarred.

Using her father's account to get access to classified information that is only released to Huntsmen or higher, this Death Knight mercenary was a real piece of work. He did everything from assassinations, theft, and breakouts. The police only knew that it was some eccentric person who wore armor and the only picture of the suspect was the shaky photo. It was some sort of jet black armor that was reminiscent of the dark ages of Atlas.

Yang frowned as she continued reading. There was no way in the Grimm riddled hells that Mr. H was Death knight, right? She couldn't imagine that Mr. H could be capable of cold-blooded murder and _torture_ of all things. Yang grimaced as she saw a picture of his victims. They were mutilated beyond recognition with only fingerprints and DNA scans to point out their identities.

Tai suddenly snorted and shifted in his sleep. Yang quickly returned his scroll to its normal position and quietly hurried upstairs to her room her mind racing with suspicions. She didn't have a peaceful sleep.

It was during the hike that Yang brought up the information carefully. "Hey, I was reading about this old newspaper article, but have you guys ever heard of this Death Knight guy?"

"Who?" Ruby asked. Weiss was indifferent while Blake..

Yang noticed Blake wince. "Hey, I saw that. What do you know about the mercenary?"

Blake quickly recovered. "He is someone you don't want to get on the bad side of. Best if you drop the subject _now_."

"But you have to admit that it is weird that both Mr. H and this Death Knight guy wear armor. The timetables match up with when Death Knight disappears and Mr. H coming into public view."

"Yang. Please. Just drop it."

"Whatever."

Weiss then piped up. "Why the sudden interest?"

"Just came upon a police report last night. He's a real piece of work with all those people the guy killed and tortured."

"What?" Weiss immediately took out a scroll and began searching for newspaper clippings. "It just says a couple of robberies and gang wars…"

"The classified police reports have more. Apparently, this guy scared the newspapers into silence. Some bribery was probably involved as well." Weiss paused then started doing something with her scroll.

Yang peeked over and leaned back in surprise. "Woah. You have access?"

"Yeah. My dad has lots of friends, and… Oh, my Monty."

"Yeah. I know right?"

"How could he be so cruel?"

"Well, there are these people called psychopaths."

"No! It's just that I knew Mr. H was on the illegal side of things, but to take things this far? Dear Monty. Why… How?"

All of team RWBY's thoughts ground to a halt.

"What?"

"You knew?"

"What's going on!"

 **Interlude (Warning: gets very dark. Involves violent interrogation of White Fang member and an innocent)**

"Don't touch her, please!" A male goat Faunus struggled against the chains that were holding down his limbs. However, his own limbs were clearly broken so all he managed to do was shake the chains a little. Each movement sent waves of pain through his body, but he persisted as he begged for leniency.

"I will if you tell me what I want to know." An armored man stood menacingly unbending to the cries of mercy and begging.

"But… I don't know what you are talking about!" Disapproval showed from the man's posture as he quietly grabbed a blood-stained whip and slashed it across a female Faunus. She screamed in pain, but the armored man didn't stop there. He grabbed a bucket of saltwater mixed with some other chemicals and poured it all over the Faunus's wounds causing her to scream even more.

"Jay. Please tell him!" The women screamed the barely coherent words.

"Yes. _Jay._ Stop feigning ignorance and tell me what I want to know so I stop torturing your fiancé. I already showed you that I know you are a White Fang member. Hmm?"

"You bastard! I'll never tell a human like you what you want to know!"

"Will. You. Stop. Repeating. The. Same. Damn. Thing. You've. Been. Repeating. For. The. Hundredth. Time!" With each word, the armored man stabbed a hot iron poker into the screaming crying fiancé while the male Faunus shouted profanity and tried to escape from his bonds.

"Damn. It seems I'm out of practice that I need to torture someone this long for them to spill the beans. I've gotten soft from my time here. It seems I need to take things up a notch. Bots. Come in here." Two massive robots walked through the doorway. The armored man slowly walked over to the chained goat Faunus and looked at the goat Faunus straight in the eye.

"Do you know who I am?"

"You… You're the Death Knight."

"Surely, you've heard the rumors about me."

"But, that's all they are. A bunch of rumors. You aren't anyone special."

"It seems that people are starting to forget me. That's not good." The armored man put his foot on the Faunus's balls and began crushing it slowly. Screams started to come from the Faunus as he begged the torturer to stop.

"IF you think that this is the worst I can do, think again. Those rumors aren't rumors. They are REAL."

"You don't scare me." The armored man sighed at the response and grabbed the horns to force the Faunus to stare deep into the dark slits of his helmet.

"You think you are so brave huh. Think you are being some sort of martyr for Faunus justice? I'll tell you right now that it doesn't _really_ matter if you tell me or not. Even if you die without spilling your secrets, someone else will. Fey, Luka, Devin… …." With each name, the man grew paler and paler as his accomplices were named one after another.

"You know as well as I do that some of those people have looser lips. _They_ will tell me what I want to know. Now, YOU can tell me what I want to know, and I will stop torturing you and your fiancé. Good deal?" Jay spat onto the armored man's helmet.

"I will never make deals with people like you."

"Have it your way." The armored man pointed at one of the droids. "You come over here and hold this fool. Make sure he sees what going to happen to his fiancé."

A bad feeling settled onto the goat Faunus's chest. "Wait. Wait. What are you going to do to her?"

The answer chilled him to his bones. The _monster_ pointed at the other droid and help up a metal rod. "You. Rape this Faunus with this stick until she is impaled all the way through. Make sure to give it to her _slowly_. Show her orgasming on that rod multiple times before you go for the kill. After that, cook her over a fire and force-feed the pieces of his fiancé to him. Make sure he sees every single step. Make sure he smells the flesh cooking. Make sure he EATS _EVERY SINGLE PIECE._ THEN, I shall see how brave he is."

"No. Wait. Wait!"

"You're going to see this robot _rape_ your fiancé first. Then, maybe your lips will loosen."

"Please. No! NOOOOOOO! I'll talk! I'll talk!"

" **Too late."**

The armored man washed his armor to get out the stink of urine and blood. It wouldn't do for others to know what he was doing. He opened up his scroll and called through an encrypted line. "Ozpin. I've got which sector of the mountain the dust is stored in. Need to narrow it down more. You got any more targets?"

"None for now. Send me what you got, and I'll start formulating some plans. Good work."


	27. Chapter 27

**Hello! Here is another chapter** **, albeit shorter than usual** **.** **Sorry for the super long-ass delay. It's been very busy irl. That and my motivation for RWBY has been iffy. I didn't really like the direction they took for season 6 and that really sapped a lot of my interest for the series which had a domino effect on this amateur fanfic. That and the college work. Holy shit, having to take embryology and organic chemistry in the same semester is painful, and it will only get worse from now on... Anyhow, I did promise that I will see this through to the end or at the very least inform you guys if I am dropping this so... there's that. I h** **ope you enjoy** **!**

Team RWBY was sitting in a circle in the middle of the tent. Ruby was holding onto her favorite teddy bear as she spoke, "Okay. I now pronounce the beginning of the very first team cooperation and conflict meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to foster good relations between us and to help settle any grievances we may have with each other in a peaceful manner. Who would like to start?"

Weiss didn't skip a beat as she ripped the teddy bear from Ruby's hand and glared at Blake. "I would like our _dear_ team member to explain THIS!"

Weiss then presented a blurry picture of Blake and an armored man facing off in a warehouse. The damning part of the picture was the corpses of what was obviously White Fang members. Blake started getting shifty, but Yang had a firm grip on Blake's shoulder to prevent her from escaping.

"Nuh-uh. You are not running away or I will have Weiss freeze your legs again." Blake clicked her tongue in annoyance. When Weiss was digging through the photos regarding Mr. H's crimes, she discovered a folder named White Fang Incidents. Within the folder, she saw Mr. H massacring White Fang members and someone who looked eerily similar to Blake. Blake tried to flee when confronted, but a quick use of Weiss's dust put a stop to her escape.

Afterward, the team RWBY began arguing and shouting over each other until Ruby put a stop to the fighting with a loud 'ENOUGH'. She then proposed a team meeting which was the current situation Blake found herself in. Knowing that the game was finally up, Blake decided to confess.

"Where do I even start?"

"At the beginning." The other three members of RWBY said at the same time.

"... So I am Blake Belladonna, daughter of Kalie Belladonna and Ghali Belladonna. My father is the chieftain of Menagerie." Blake paused as she looked over the faces of her teammate.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I've done background checks. Just move on with the story." Weiss interrupted.

"Weiss! Don't be so rude."

"Rude? Rude! Rude is hiding such..." Yang quickly blocked Weiss's mouth and stared at her.

"Enough." Yang turned to Blake. "Continue."

Ruby put her hands on Blake's lap and gave an encouraging squeeze. With a trembling voice, Blake recounted the early nonviolent days of the White Fang. How the demonstrations were brutally crushed. How all the passerby did not lift a finger to help. Even though the beatings were televised, nothing came. No protests, no movements. Only complaints of how the Faunus were 'disturbing the peace'. It was too much for many and the radicalization of the White Fang occurred. Her father tried to stop it, but in the end, it was futile.

The most prominent radical member and soon to be the leader of the White Fang was a mysterious bull faunus by the name of Adam Taurus. He led something of a crusade against the Schnee Dust company and was very successful. He would steal the dust to sell them on the black market with his prime customers being human mafia members. He then reinvested the money into the poor Faunus community. Soon his success drew in more and more until one day the White Fang was nothing more than another organized crime group.

At first, Blake was highly supportive of the change. They were actually _accomplishing_ something. They were putting more food in the table of the impoverished Faunus. Faunus villages were now able to afford better housing so fewer children froze to death during the harsh winters. Menagerie was able to finally invest in better infrastructure and build a proper fishing industry. In addition, they were finally hitting back at the Schnee Dust Company the worst offender of the Faunus rights. Blake still shivered when she thought of the mines. How quickly the men could be strung up for looking at a human woman. How easy it was for a human male miner to rape a Faunus girl with no consequences. How due to the distance from the city, no Faunus equality laws were enforced.

Monty, she still remembered the tapping. During one of the missions, she had to infiltrate a dust mine to find out where the supply train depot was located. In the tunnels, she could always hear some sort of tapping noise over the whips of the human overseers. She managed to gain some insight into the tapping from a 12-year-old Faunus with eyes that have seen too much.

About three days ago, there was an explosion in the deeper part of the mines. Management was warned about the mismanagement of the explosives multiple times, but properly organizing the haphazardly stacked explosives would take time. TIme meant money. Thus, all reports and warnings were ignored. Then, the fated day happened. In the end, over 100 Faunus's were trapped in the deeper tunnels. Yet, humans did nothing to save them. No rescue attempts were made since any attempts would take time. _Time meant money_. Management simply deemed it more profitable to grab ( _kidnap_ ) more Faunus from the slums instead. Any unauthorized rescue attempts were punished by whippings. Faunus was hanged for any repeat offenses and quickly replaced by other Faunus. Thus, the Faunus workers were forced to work in the mines with the tappings of their trapped comrades to haunt their nightmares.

Blake was simply ecstatic to be able to strike back at the Schnee for their crimes. However, the seeds of doubt began to grow in Blake the higher she went up the hierarchy of the White Fang. Was the White Fang any better than the Schnees? She will never forget the massacre when the human mafia lined up rival gangs in front of the wall and mowed them down with the dust the Faunus sold them. Not even the children were spared, and Adam watched the entire execution with joy in his eyes.

However, she stayed because there were no other alternatives. What was she supposed to do? No one else would buy dust from Faunus, and in the end, the White Fang was the only one to bring about any positive changes. Yet that all changed in a few years. Ever since General Ironwood came into power, the Huntsmen began to actually enforce any of the Faunus equality laws. Villages were finally being properly taxed, and corrupt officials were removed from power. In exchange, there was a call for Faunus to lay down their arms, for the Faunus to come back to the negotiating table to discuss the issues instead of committing violent crimes. In addition, Headmaster Ozpin declared that he would be increasing the admission numbers for Faunus applicants to ease the disparity between human and Faunus huntsmen.

While Blake began to see the good in humanity once more, Adam thought differently. He refused to lay down his arms saying that human words could not be trusted. If anything, he wished to escalate the conflict. At first, Blake went along with his belief, but more and more it became clear to Blake that this fight was less about equality between Faunus and humans, but more of a personal vendetta, a crusade against humans regardless of the costs. Realizing this, Blake decided to flee and ended up in Beacon due to Ozpin's Faunus program.

Blake closed her eyes and waited for the response her team would give to her story. She braced for the cold looks and the bitter words of a coward. After all, that was what she was. Even though she knew something was wrong, she did nothing. In the very end, instead of confronting the problem, she ran away.

Blake snapped her eyes open in surprise when she felt a hug wrap around her. Expecting to see yellow or red, she was surprised to see white. Weiss of all people was hugging her. She watched stunned as Weiss pulled back and said, "Sorry about jumping to conclusions. I assumed the worst when I should have tried to say stay positive."

"No. It shouldn't be you who should apologize. It should be me. I lied to all of you. I was too much of a c-coward, and I ran away..." Blake broke down in tears, and Weiss quickly handed a handkerchief to Blake who noisily blew her nose into it before handing it back. Weiss gingerly held the cloth by the edge and quickly tossed it away.

"Look. I really shouldn't be in any position to judge you for your actions since.. well.. you could say that I too was a coward when I refused to confront my father. You could even say that me coming to this school was a way of running away. I could have easily gone to the school in Atlas you know. I just... I had a feeling, but... Hearing the _extent_ of how far my father went for profits... I wish I did something, but what could I do? Report my father to the authorities. Hah. My father bought out all the judges a long time ago... I think I understand why you always gave me those stink eyes. Heck, I'm surprised you haven't stabbed me in my sleep yet." Tears began polling at the edges of Weiss's eyes as she was forced to confront the ugly truth behind her father's shady business practices.

Blake chuckled at Weiss's words. "I may be many things, but I'm not petty enough to blame you for your father's crimes. I know that you had nothing to do with it. Besides, me giving you the stick eye... It was just because of your... err..."

Weiss's eyes narrowed. "My what?"

"your... bitchiness?" Blake and Weiss stared at each other until Weiss broke the tension by laughing.

"You're right. I was pretty bitchy at the beginning, wasn't I?" At those words, all of the team RWBY laughed as the tension drained away.

"Let's take a ten-minute break before we discuss the next topic. All in favor?" Yang proposed. All four members raised their hands, and Yang nodded.

"Great. I need to go sniff the flowers for a bit." Yang stretched out her cramps before leaving the tent.

"I'm gonna go rummage through the snacks. I'm kinda famished." There was a rush of air as Ruby rushed out leaving Weiss and Blake by themselves.

Blake opened her mouth to say something, but Weiss put up her hand. "If you are going to apologize again, don't bother. I don't care anymore. You had the _courage_ to notice something was wrong and leave. That's good enough for me."

Blake snapped her mouth shut and slowly nodded her head in thanks. Weiss then suddenly thought of something and stood up in a panic. "Did Ruby just say that she was gonna go rummage through our snacks _by herself?_ "

"My tuna crackers..." The two girls quickly burst out of the tent to make sure Ruby wasn't going to eat all their snacks. Sure enough, Ruby was shoving candy bar after candy bar into her mouth.

"Ruby! Don't you dare touch my... no! Not the chocolates!" Weiss screamed as she pounced on Ruby to wrestle away the last of the Crispy Peanut Chocolates.

Blake upon noticing the empty boxes of Limited Edition Tuna Crisps collapsed on her knees with comically dead eyes. "No... My crackers."

Suddenly, Ruby who was wrestling with Weiss nearby quickly swallowed the chocolate in her mouth, and she took out a box from underneath her cloak with her free hand. The box had the words Limited Edition... Upon seeing the words, Blake's eyes grew feral, and she yanked Weiss off Ruby and started to grapple with Ruby for the control of the box.

Yang came out of the woods to see her sister fighting with her teammates over the crackers. Her mouth clenched into an ugly smirk as she quickly realized what happened, and flames flickered on her hair. " _Ruby."_

The three girls froze to see the face of a Yang with the face of an ogre. "Did you eat my crisps?"

Ruby with a mouth full of snacks shook her head in denial. Suddenly, an empty tube that had the big words " _Crisps"_ fell out of Ruby's cape.

Yang looked at the incriminating evidence and smiled. Ruby tried to escape, but her two other teammates held her down. "Let's have some fun. Shall we?"

Ruby had no regrets as she found herself being dragged off into the woods. Her friends needed a distraction from the heavy stories they just heard, and Ruby would gladly sacrifice herself to be that distraction... And thus, 30 minutes later, the team walks back into the tent with Ruby completely drenched from being thrown into the lake.

"Jeez. I said I was sorry. It's that Blake's depressing story made me all hungry."

"That's no excuse to go eat half of our snacks." Weiss snapped.

"I thought we agreed first come, first served!"

"It's called limiting ourselves to a couple of snacks every day to stretch out our supply,, Ruby!" This time it was Blake that answered Ruby.

"Look. Let's just put this behind us and focus on our next subject." Yang looked down at the picture that was on Weiss's scroll. "Anything you can tell us about him, Blake. Out of all four of us, you are the only one who knew about his past."

"I don't know a lot. All I know was that one day Weiss's father got sick of Faunus continuously liberating his goods so he hired him. Ever since that day, White Fang casualties skyrocketed, and after seeing how Adam was so... cold to our comrades' deaths... It helped solidify my decision to leave. If anything, Weiss would probably know more."

Weiss held up her hands in defeat. "I don't know much more than he is a- uhh what's the best way to say this- legally questionable mercenary for legally questionable work. I didn't realize the extent of how _illegal_ his work was until now. I tried looking up more, but not even my father has much information on him other than how he mysteriously appeared about a year ago and how he is the confirmed inventor of the fireworks and suspected inventor of a new metal alloy that has Atlas's military in a flurry to replicate."

"Is that seriously all the Schnee family managed to obtain?" Blake inquired.

"I'm telling you that there are no records of him. Nada. Zilch." Weiss then proceeded to explain the severe lack of information regarding the man. Everything document regarding his past was forged or a straight-up lie. "What about the White Fang. I highly doubt you guys didn't do any digging."

"We did. Nothing much. He ran a couple of brothels as a side business... But other than that, we got nothing."

"So, he was actually telling the truth about that, huh.." Yang said. The other members gave her a look of surprise. She held her hands and said, "In my defense, he was the one who brought it up..."

"So back to square one." Ruby sighed as she collapsed down onto the ground and stared at the tent ceiling. Yang leaned her head back and sighed deeply.

Blake suddenly remembered a conversation she had with Mr. H. "Wait. I think Pyrrha would know something."

"What does Pyrrha have to do with this?" Ruby asked.

"I remember a conversation with him about how he came to Beacon to watch over someone. You've seen how close Pyrrha is with him. I bet a couple hundred lien that they share some history." Weiss got curious about this new revelation so she decided to look over any records about Pyrrha. Perhaps there might be some clues that could help with this mystery.

"But when? How? Besides, I find it difficult to believe that Pyrrha would get along with a murderer." Weiss countered not looking up from her scroll.

"I think it's very possible that it was Mr. H who trained Pyrrha in the past. Maybe he wasn't alway like this." Ruby exclaimed.

"That may have been the smartest thing you have said since your induction as team leader." Weiss sarcastically applauded before her hands returned to scrolling down an interesting news article. Lich... Why did that name seem so familiar?

"Hey!" Ruby pouted. "Anyway, I think we should do sneak into his house and scout around for some clues like some of those detective movies."

"I take back my compliment." Weiss disapproved. "I am not breaking into the house of a friend who is also a suspected murderer."

"But... but... It would be so cool going all detective mode and just going _hwa_ and then _swoosh_..." Weiss stared at Ruby with a cold stare and repeated her refusal in a clearer way.

" _No."_ Ruby's shoulders drooped at the refusal.

"But..." Weiss continued. "I am open to it after we exhaust all other options."

"What other options?"

"Pyrrha. I'm positive they have some history together. Look I found something interesting." Weiss pointed at a special article a couple of years ago describing how a local girl was lost during a freak Grimm attack in the mountains. She was later found, and the girl credited her survival to a man named Lich.

"So?" Yang was confused at what this meant.

"I feel really stupid for not realizing this sooner. What's H'Cil Mai backward?"

Yang paused as she thought it through. "Iam Lic'h... I am Lich... Oh. Wow I feel stupid."

"Yeah. I know. This is too much to be a coincidence so let's have a talk with Pyrrha before taking more... drastic measures. BUT! Let's try to enjoy this camping trip first. We need to clear our minds before we tackle whatever shit storm this will turn out to be. Now, let's go cook some s'mores." Weiss stood up and stretched her limbs before going outside. She turned to her teammates before asking, "You guys helping or not?"


	28. Chapter 28

**Hello! Another chapter! Enjoy!**

Sipping a cup of coffee while sitting in an outdoor table of a rather popular cafe near a busy port, Pyrrha was watching the wave of people preparing for the Vytal Festival Tournament. Ships continuously sailed in and out of harbor transporting goods and people to the necessary destinations. Curiously, there seemed to be an ever-increasing number of military vessels, but Pyrrha decided that it was not yet at a level that would cause alarm. Raise eyebrows for sure, but not alarm... Maybe she would discuss this with Lich. He would probably have a better idea.

On the topic of Lich, a couple of days before the start of the school semester Team RWBY sent a message wanting to talk about him with her for some reason. Sadly, they didn't exactly specify what they wanted to talk about. Only that they requested that they are in a public place for this conversation. Pyrrha frowned as she remembered reading about the request. This implied many things. Not good things sadly.

Pyrrha prayed to Monty that this conversation wasn't what she feared was about. Pyrrha didn't know about what misdeeds Lich committed after he was released and neither did she desire to know. What mattered to Pyrrha was the here and now. As long as Lich had given up his life of crime and was intent on keeping a clean record from now on, it was good enough for her. However, Pyrrha wasn't so naive to think that others would easily forgive Lich for his past actions. As a result, she could only hope that team RWBY would give him a chance if this conversation was what she feared was about.

"Hey, Pyrrha!" Pyrrha looked up from her coffee to see Ruby waving at her from across the street. Her other teammates also gave a wave when they made eye contact.

"I saved us a table. Is this place good enough or did you have somewhere else in mind?"

Weiss shook her head. "No. This is great. You come to this place often?"

Pyrrha nodded. "Yeah. Their affogatos are great and the latte is amazing."

Yang nodded. "Well, I guess I'll try out the affogato then. What about you three?"

"Espresso for me." "Hot chocolate." "Cappuccino." As Yang went to the counter to order her team's beverages, the other three members sat down at the table and stared at each other. Pyrrha watched a silent conversation going between the three of them as they urged each other to say something. Pyrrha considered breaking the silence, but she simply decided to wait for Yang to come back first. If anything, Yang would be the best one to break the ice.

The silence went on for a full 5 minutes until Yang came back with the drinks. "Whoa. What's with the tension here?"

Ruby nervously laughed. "What? I don't see any tension here. What are you talking about Yang? Hahaha haha... ha?"

Pyrrha merely gave a deadpan look at Ruby before turning to Yang with a smile. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Yang looked at Weiss and nodded. "Show her what you found."

Weiss took out her scroll and after fiddling with it, Pyrrha was sent an article. An article talking about her disappearance. Pyrrha raised her eyebrow and asked, "And? What about it?"

"Lich. We know that Mr. H is Lich. For crying out loud, his name written backward literally says I am Lich."

Pyrrha raised her hands. "No need to get so aggressive. I will admit. Mr. H and I have some history together."

Ruby smiled and grabbed Pyrrha's hands. "That's great! Maybe you'll be able to explain to me and my teammates about these police reports we found about Lich. It's just a big understanding, right? He's not really a bad guy, right?"

"What police reports?"

Blake looked at Pyrrha with suspicion. "You aren't pulling our leg right now? He wasn't exactly a goody two shoes during his mercenary years."

Pyrrha sighed and massaged her temples. "Oh, dear. What did you find out about him?"

Weiss once more did some fiddling with her scroll. Pyrrha began looking through the police reports, articles, and pictures of the Death Knight's deeds. Some of the pictures made her want to throw up. Choking on liquid gold was one hell of a way to die. Pyrrha groaned as she realized the current situation. As she was banking on what she should tell her friends, team RWBY patiently waited. As much as Pyrrha wanted to tell the truth with a lot of omissions, Weiss Schnee of all people was her opponent. Although Pyrrha had some experience in the art of conversation as a champion, it paled in comparison to Weiss. Weiss would be able to tear up any attempts, and Pyrrha had no doubts about it.

Blake spoke up snapping Pyrrha from her worries. "Look. We're not here to condemn Mr. H. Me especially. I also had a history with him, and what I really want to know is did he really change? What happened? I just want to understand him more."

Pyrrha shook her head in understanding. "Alright... I just wanted to say that Lich wasn't always like this. If anything, he is... It's really complicated and a long story. It's not really my story to tell." Weiss caught on to what Pyrrha was trying to do.

"We've got time. Also, I don't think he would really mind. One of the first things he taught me was to get as much information as possible about your enemies and friends. You are our best option, and should you refuse, we have more drastic options we can take. Isn't that right Ruby?"

"Yep, there's going to be lots of..." Ruby began making lots of animated hand movements. Hand movements that Pyrrha dreaded to know what they entailed.

However expecting this from Weiss, Pyrrha continued with her story. "How much do you girls know about the Graveyard of the Gods?"

At those words, Weiss choked on her drink. After coughing to clear her throat, Weis rasped out, "How the hell do you know about that?"

Noticing her team's confusion Weiss explained, "I don't know much about it, but there was an excavation of a ruin some time ago that said something about the Graveyard of the Gods. The Graveyard of the Gods is some type of prison for the leftover weapons and soldiers that the two brothers have created in the war between each other. After all men and weapons of war have no place in a time of peace. There was more, but ever since a... err... White Fang attack, the ruins are now blown to smithereens. It didn't exist long enough for an archeologist to examine so nobody ran an article about it."

Pyrrha noticed how uncomfortable Blake looked, but she decided to file it away for later consideration. "Well, prison is the right word for it. It has all sorts of monsters all right."

She then began listing all the monstrosities that existed within the caves ranging from lava beasts to eldritch abominations. Her friend's expressions ranged from disbelieving to disgusted. "How I know all this? I was trapped there for a time after all."

That got team RWBY's attention. Before they could speak, however, Pyrrha lifted up her hands to silence any incoming questions. "I don't know how I got trapped in there. I don't know how I got out. I don't know where the _damned"_ Team RWBY was surprised at the venomous tone that Pyrrha took. "place is. The only thing that matters was that Lich was trapped in that place for a couple hundred if not thousands of years before I came along. _By himself."_

Pyrrha slowly watched as the implied meaning of what she said sank into her friends. Yang's mouth slowly opened and closed as she tried to wrap her head around how old Lich was. Weiss was debating on if she should believe what she was hearing or call Pyrrha out on whatever bullshit she was spewing. Ruby had tears pooling on the corner of her eyes as she could imagine the pain and suffering of her friend. Blake was trying to look for any signs of lies in Pyrrha's expression.

"So... If what you are saying is true, he is insane?" Weiss slowly spoke the words trying to make sense of it all.

"That's not the words I would use to describe him... I would simply say he has trouble adjusting. But! He has been making improvements. These crimes he committed... It was when he wasn't really in the right state of the mind. He's a good man. When I was trapped down there, he could have just abandoned me, but he even sacrificed himself so that I could escape. Look here me out. Based on his time here, did he really strike you as a bad person." Ruby seemed to agree with Pyrrha. Blake seemed to have a complicated expression. Yang was on the edge, but Weiss had a large frown on her face.

"Thank you for your insights Pyrrha. It's a big pill to swallow so could we talk later? Just give us some time to digest all this..." Suddenly, a blond monkey Faunus landed on their table spilling everyone's tea. He groaned in pain before he looked up and froze in terror. He then let out a strangled scream and stood up before sprinting away at adrenaline-fueled speeds. Barely a second later, an armored man barreled through the remains of their table to give chase. Mechanical arms were whirring around trying to navigate through the sea of citizens in order to capture the Faunus.

Blake muttered, "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear."

"Lich. What the hell is going on?" Lich halted in his tracks. The Faunus took the momentary distraction to enter one of the side streets and disappeared out of view. He cursed under his breath before facepalming. Pyrrha noticed a smear of white paint all over his armor.

"What are you doing here? I thought you would still be at Mistral with your family."

"I decided to come earlier for some volunteer hours. You?"

"Trying to catch a Faunus who illegally boarded a ship. I was going to just give him a scolding and send him on his way, but he made it personal when he threw white paint on me for trying to apprehend him and called me some interesting names." Lich then noticed the spilled coffee and shook his head.

"Sorry about the drinks. I'll buy you girls another one." Lich then noticed all the stares he was getting. "Preferably someplace else. Is that okay?"

Team RWBY stared at each other until Weiss spoke up. "We have something scheduled soon so can we take you up on that offer tomorrow? We sort of have some questions for you."

Lich scratched his head. "Sorry, but I'm going to be very busy tomorrow."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "With what?"

"Just busy." This time Pyrrha narrowed her eyes.

"Nothing illegal I hope?" Lich was strangely silent. "Err... I got a permit."

Pyrrha was about to grill him for more information, but a hand from Weiss stopped her.

"Okay." Weiss nodded. "Then two days from now. Is that fine?"

"That's great. I'll send you a text." Lich quickly noticed the piercing glares from the four girls and made his escape.

Team RWBY glanced at each other, and a silent agreement was made. Pyrrha's intuition caught on to what her friends were about to do so she asked if she could join on their little outing. It appears that Lich has underestimated one of the greatest cliches in stories: a woman's intuition.

It was why Pyrrha found herself at the top of the roof with a walkie talkie and binoculars the very next day. "Target approaching West Emerald Street. Took a right turn. Over and out."

"Alright Iron Fire. It seems he is headed toward Yellow Dragon. Do you copy?"

"Do we really have to have these stupid nicknames, Ruby?"

"Yes, Weiss. It is like a requirement for situations like these."

"Says who?"

"Books!"

"You mean those cheesy cartoons you read?"

"They are not JUST cheesy cartoons! They are the epitome of..."

"Girls. He's entering the... red light district?" Yang's confusion was shared by everyone. Pyrrha was the most confused.

"But... He doesn't have..." Suddenly, remembering who was with her, she promptly closed her mouth.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Hey, you think he might be visiting the brothels he worked at or something?" Blake answered with a 'probably'.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, Yang's voice came through the walkie talkie. "Girls. He's entered a brothel, and he has not come out. I guess this is what he meant by being very busy... Very busy indeed."

Pyrrha frowned. "No. Yang. He's not doing whatever you girls are thinking."

"How are you so sure? I mean those girls are pretty sexy. It would be pretty hard for a guy to stay away."

"No. It's just that he's... Err... Nevermind. Forget I said anything, but he's not going in there for some sexy time. That's a fact."

There was a pause before Yang's teasing voice came through. "Don't tell me he is actually impotent."

"No! Nothing like that. It's complicated, okay!"

"Whatever you say. Let's put it to a vote. Who thinks he is in there for some p-" Suddenly, a thump could be heard behind Yang.

"Yang. What are you doing?" Lich's voice was heard through the walkie talkie.

"What! How did... When..."

"Brothels tend to have escape tunnels. I used it to double around. You guys are two years too early to be trying stealth tactics on me. I saw all five of you a long time ago. Especially Ruby with that mask and sunglasses. Seriously Ruby?"

"Hey! I take offense to that!"

"Now explain to me why you girls are tailing me."

Pyrrha spoke up. "Lich. You sounded very suspicious yesterday, and... well... Monty damn it... Lich. They found out about your criminal record."

"Urrg" A strangled voice was heard. "Oh... How much of it?"

"All the police reports."

"Aren't they supposed to be classified? Ozpin promised to classify them all!"

Weiss piped up. "Schnee Dust Company can access many of Atlas's classified files with little problem."

"Freaking rich corrupted... Ah... Sorry about this Weiss." A string of cusswords directed at the upper class was heard from the walkie talkie. Scribbling sounds could be heard from one of the walkie talkies. The intensity of which caused sweatdrops to fall from each of the girls.

Weiss's annoyed voice came from the walkie talkie. "You done?"

"Sorry you had to hear that. Man what a blunder." Suddenly a beeping noise indicating a message from a scroll. "Crud. Gimme that Yang! Did you read any of it?"

"N-no."

A pregnant pause later, Lich's voice came through. "Sorry girls. I really got to go. I swear that I'll clear up everything with you guys later. Just go home as fast as possible."

The sound of someone jumping could be heard before Yang's shaky voice could be heard. "First, Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"You will throw away that scrap of paper that has a list of all the cuss words you have heard from Mr. H. If I see that on you at the end of the day, I will take out away your cookies for an entire week."

"Bu-Bu-"

"No Buts. And... Umm.. Blake? I saw a glimpse of the text message that came through his scroll. Apparently, he is annihilating a White Fang gathering today. Not just attack, but annihilate. That's what his very busy thing meant."

...

"Blake? You there?"

"W-We need to stop him. Weiss, I know what you think about them, but they are just misled Faunuses. We can't..."

"I know. I may not like them, but even I don't hate them enough to want them dead."

"Can someone explain to me what's going on here?" Pyrrha snapped.

A rambled explanation later, Pyrrha wanted to collapse from the shock. He promised. _He promised._ Yet, it seemed that he was going on murder sprees behind her back. No. Pyrrha will trust Lich. She was going to find him and demand an explanation. Second, Blake was a Faunus... Okay, Maybe that wasn't as surprising as she thought it would be. However, it became clear to Pyrrha that after a good night's sleep, everyone needed to sit and get their shit together because Pyrrha wasn't sure how many curveballs she could take.

In order to cover as much ground as possible, the whole team decided to split up. If Lich or anything came up, they were to contact each other on the scroll. As a result, she was busy running around the alleyways until she bumped into Ruby who was talking to a girl who had orangish hair.

Noticing Pyrrha, Ruby looked up and gave a wave. "Oh hey Pyrrha. Look who I found. Pyrrha. Penny. Penny. Pyrrha"

Despite being pressed for time, Pyrrha held in her retorts and gave a forced smile and shook the person's hand. "Pleased to meet you. I would love to chat, but Ruby and I are extremely..."

"You are looking for a meeting full of Faunus. No?"

Pyrrha's hand grabbed Penny's hand a bit stronger than she meant to. "Oh. Do you have any information regarding our search?"

"Why yes! During my walk around this beautiful city, I happened to come across some quite uncomfortable flyers. I believe I saw one just down that alleyway."

"Thank you for your help. Now come on Ruby." Not even looking if RUby was following her, she quickly found the flyer that Penny described and glanced over it. Immediately, she took out her scroll, snapped a couple of pictures and contacted her friends.

"Okay, I found where the meeting will take place."

Blake was the first one to answer. "Me too. I ran into the monkey Faunus that Mr. H was chasing everywhere. We managed to find out while searching together. Our information matches thankfully."

Yang's voice came second. "Yeah. I'm the closest to the place so I'll do some scouting first."

"Then see you guys there." It was barely three minutes later when a massive explosion came from the docks.

Yang's voice came through. "Get your asses over here right now! There is a massive giant robot rampaging...!" Suddenly, Yang's voice got cut off.

Understanding the need for speed, Pyrrha turned towards Ruby. "Ruby! Mr. H trained you to carry other people using your semblance over longer distances right?"

"Yeah... but..."

"No Buts. Let's do this."


End file.
